Shelter: Book 2, A Long Days Night (36 page)

“What are they using for money?”

“Sir, they barter, they are trading food for services and labor. Some of the most valuable items are guns and ammo, they place the highest value on 22 caliber, also cigarettes, beer, gasoline, and coffee.

“Do you mean, 223 caliber?”

“No, sir. They were very clear, they value 22 caliber and 12 gauge shotgun shells the highest.”

“Why those calibers?”

“Sir, the government is going to allow them to own small 22 caliber guns and shotguns.”

“I see. I do not think we have any 22 caliber, it is not something we normally carry.

By the way, do they have a set exchange rate?”

“No, each deal is negotiated on its own.”

“We should be in good shape, we have plenty of guns and ammo, plus cigarettes. I find it interesting they are not using precious metals.”

“Sir, we asked them what they would value silver eagle coins at, we were surprised at their response, which was they can not eat, drink or protect themselves with silver coins. Sir, we have thousands of the coins which we have been lugging around with us, it seems they are as worthless as dollar bills.”

“Give them time. Right now they are trading for what they need to survive. Once their basic survival is ensured, they will rethink the value of precious metal. They are right what they told you, they can not eat the silver. The outlaws stripped them of their food. Right now food is the most valuable currency, we have a lot of freeze dried food, we should be able to buy anything or anyone we want with it. We will need a cover story to who we are and where we got our supplies. If we say we stole them, they will assume we are outlaws and either not trust us or attack us thinking we will attack them. They are going to be very curious where we got cases of freeze dried food and why we are eager to trade it. If we drive into town, they will think we are from their government and hound us for handouts or they will not trust a word we say. Find me Nikita, this is his area of expertise. Let us make our political officer earn his next meal.”

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A smiling President goes before the nation to say, “My fellow Americans, it’s my pleasure to stand before you tonight to show off our newly revised currency. Our new currency will compose of a $1, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 bill. We’ve selected special people from history to grace the new bills. We’re going to replace the existing founding fathers and presidents on the American currency with famous people who fought for their people around the world. Our new one dollar bill with carry the image of Martin Luther King, the five dollar bill will carry the image of Mao Zedong, the ten dollar bill will carry the image of the American Indian Sitting Bull, the twenty-five dollar bill will carry the image of Karl Marx, the fifty will carry the image of Che Guevara, the one hundred dollar bill will carry Woodrow Wilson’s image. The five hundred will carry Lenin’s image and finally,” the President gleams widely, “The one thousand dollar bill will carry my image.”

Most of America, who were able to listen to the speech, were shocked at the change. Progressives cheered the change as a sure sign of a united world, a world where everyone will be equal. America Patriots are furious, they swear not to accept the conversion.

The President continues, “In order to get America back on her feet I’ve signed a new executive order placing a one-time conversion fee on the exchange of currency that exceeds the value of one million old dollars. All transactions that equal or exceed one million dollars will have a one-time fee of 20%. This one-time fee will go towards the establishment of a new stimulus spending plan that will spread $3 trillion into much-needed rebuilding. I’m sure everyone will agree the only way to get America back on her feet and people back to work is for the government to spend on much needed social and construction programs. Part of the stimulus program will be the conversion of all local and state police into a new national police force. We’re taking this step because I’m concerned about the different levels of treatment people receive. The rich, the minorities, and others all receive vastly different legal treatment across the country. This is going to change with the federalization of our police forces. The new stimulus program will put Americans back to work. There are bridges and roads to rebuild, power stations to be rebuilt, we are going to change our economy from one based on petrochemicals to a sustainable green-based economy. The initial conversion cost may be high, but the long-term benefits to the planet and to our economy are very substantial. America will once again be in a leadership position. In order to put as many Americans as possible back to work, we’re going to increase the minimum wage while also cutting welfare payments. We’re going to create an incentive to work. We will be ready to begin the currency conversion two weeks from today. I thank you for your time and God bless the small blue-green planet we all share.”

The reaction to the President’s speech was quick and violent. No one liked his ideas. The wealthy didn’t like the new tax and conversion fees, the poor didn’t like the reduction of welfare payments, or the possibility of having to go to work. People debated the conversion to a renewable green economy, many liked it. However, many felt this wasn’t the right time to increase costs. Unsaid by the President was his order to send more troops into the countryside to disarm the population so they couldn’t object to his new executive orders.

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We in the shelter decided the President was now on the verge of totally destroying America. He was able to increase racism, in his first seven years he almost started a race war, he pitted the rich against the poor, now he was federalizing the police and placing communists on our currently. All of us were angry, Tony shook his head saying, “I think he all but guaranteed a break-up of the country.”

I reply, “I’m not going to turn in our dollars so he can tax us an additional 20%. We now know the military isn’t on our side. Any that come by are our enemies and will be treated as such. I suggest we create two teams, one to work on the homes and one to rebuild our defenses.”

Everyone agreed, the kids are pressed back into service to load magazines and build traps and bombs. I’d hoped we would be preparing for peace and rebuilding. Instead, we’re preparing for another war, maybe endless war until we take our country back. Thank God we have our shelter. We have to figure out how to wall ourselves off from the rest of the area. It's time to study history and see how the Europeans built moats and walls around their castles without power tools. If they built walls around entire towns and built stone castles, and the settlers built wooden forts in the west, we should be able to figure out how to wall ourselves away from the outlaws and crazies. It may be the only way our community can survive. Walls, followed by mines and booby traps with a fall back to our shelter, seems to be our path to survival. We’re in the twenty-first century going to have to rely on defensive theories from a thousand years ago. I wonder if we’re going to have to relive the dark ages too.

Chapter 26

After the Chinese defeat in the Pacific they attempt a different plan, they flood Hawaii and California with advertising promoting that the people of the two states should push for a referendum to merge with the People’s Republic. The Chinese Department of Propaganda releases a thirty minute televised, internet and radio program describing the future of America. They explain that America is financially bankrupt, the next step in the country’s total collapse will be hyperinflation like Germany experienced after the First World War and Argentina experienced in the 1970s. The Chinese explain that more than 50% of Americans are going to die due to a lack of electricity, medications, and clean water. The President’s new stimulus plan will ensure the country dies a slow, painful death. The Chinese Premier promises a degree of self-rule and status as an independent economic zone. He promises them a life that will be the envy of the rest of the country. The President laughs when he sees the Chinese program, he tells his CoS, “There’s no way the progressives in California or Hawaii will vote to join China. They will stay with me through the dark times.”

His CoS asks, “Mr. President, are you sure? Our polls show your support is very weak in Hawaii.”

“That’s impossible. I went to school there, they love me in Hawaii.”

“Mr. President, since the banking meltdown, they don’t love you, the cost of everything in Hawaii has gone up more than one hundred percent. Tens of thousands are homeless, many are starving. They can’t afford the cost of food. Violent crime has increased over one thousand percent. Mr. President, our polls show that if the vote were held today you would lose, the people would vote to join China.”

“No, I can’t believe it. Tell the pilots I want to fly to Hawaii to speak directly to the people.”

“Sir, that’s not a good idea. Fuel is in very short supply, if the people see you flying to Hawaii to give a speech, more will turn on you. Mr. President, you have to come to grips that things are significantly different now. No one is loaning anyone else any money. Many of our own people have given up even trying to use dollars as currency. No one is accepting them.”

“Why not? A dollar is internationally accepted. It’s the base currency of the world.”

“Mr. President, none of the other countries are accepting the dollar unless it’s backed by precious metals.”

“Impossible, we back our currency with the good faith of the government.”

“Mr. President, in a worldwide economic meltdown it doesn’t matter. No one is accepting anything except for precious metals. Mr. President, before you think about backing the dollar with precious metals, we don’t have enough precious metals to back all of the dollars in circulation.”

The President smiles, “We don’t have to back all the dollars in circulation, many of them will never be turned in, we only have to back the new dollars. Drug dealers aren’t going to exchange dollars, countries aren’t going to exchange them either. We can screw most of the scum while we bring stability to our new currency.”

“Mr. President that will upset many very powerful people and countries.”

“They can’t do anything to us. The more I think about this plan, the more I like it.”

“Mr. President, I beg you to reconsider. You could push the world deeper into a worldwide depression much worse than the one in 1929.”

“I’ll think it over and discuss it with my advisors.”

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“Fred, did anyone get a chance to check on the barns and garages?”

“Yes, about three-quarters of the animals have been killed. They killed many for their beef. The assholes killed a cow, cut some meat from her and moved on to the next. A complete waste of good animals. They had no idea what they were doing. They didn’t know how to salt and store the meat. They wasted most of the meat. Most of the pigs were untouched. I guess they couldn’t catch and hold them long enough to kill.”

“What did you expect? The motorcycle gang was only interested in their own pleasure, they had no respect for anything except their own lives. I’m surprised we have any animals left. The good news is they left us some to breed. We need to take an inventory of our animals and seed crop left. Let’s get the animals to mate, we’re going to need to expand our inventory of animals and grain as soon as possible. Early tomorrow we should check our fields to determine the damage and how soon we can clear some of them to get some late summer planting in. We’re going to need everything we can grow and salvage until next summer.”

“Jay, I thought you had years worth of freeze dried food stored.”

“I do, however, I look at that as a strategic reserve. I don’t want to touch them unless we have nothing else. I want us to be self-sufficient. I want us to have enough food in case someone tried to blockade us we can outlast them.”

“Jay, you sound like we’re living in the middle ages.”

Smiling, “Aren’t we?”

Fred starts to say something, he thinks better of it. He closes his half open mouth and nods his agreement. “I’ll get on it tomorrow.”

“Great.”

“Let’s pick up our better halves and get dinner.”

“Talked me into it.”

“By the way, I haven’t seen Ricky around lately, what have you done with him? Please don’t tell me you released him into the wild.”