The Preppers Lament (6 page)

“Well we hadn’t considered going anywhere David but I am all ears if you have heard any news or can offer any advice. After all you’re the prepper author! I said that right didn’t I” Will said catching himself after using a term David seemed to scowl about previously.

“Yea I am a prepper author I suppose Will. All the term prepper means is someone who prepares, hell everyone prepares for something, but back to what I wanted to tell you. You remember I said that anything could happen now? Well back in my college days I used to study Emergency Management and terrorism and we looked at all kinds of potential risks or threats. Have either one of you given any thought to the nuclear power plant up the road and what might be going on up there at the moment?” David advised them and answered Julies unsaid question with a dismissive look to tell her not to worry about what he was going to say next.

Sally and Will looked at each other momentarily and then warily asked David if he had heard any news or knew anything about the safety of such Atomic power plants when they were shutdown.

“I haven’t heard anything about that particular plant Will. I can only assume and hope the utility company has shut it down safely and are running emergency generators for core cooling or something. I sure hope they have enough fuel for them damn things to stay running until they get re-supplied.” David advised but didn’t bother to mention the possibility of some of the 440 nuclear power reactors in this country running short of backup generator fuel before the reactors had time to completely and safely undergo an emergency SCRAM shutdown and subsequent cooling. Surely most will successfully shut down – but all of them, too many screwups and operator errors for that. And to maintain cooling?
David reminded himself to put batteries in the old Geiger counter he had.

“I
know from the radio news that they are having some issues and problems of shutting down a similarly designed plant up in the Midwest, but they say they will have it under control soon. Now let’s think outside the box for a minute everyone.” David said getting ready to lay more doom and gloom on his listeners.

“I told you that right now you need to be thinking that anything could happen and just might happen from now on to make the situation infinitely worse. What if for example, What if those terrorists stepped up there attacks on us and launched a coordinated virus attack on our nuclear power plants. They could you know, they have the capabilities and no qualms about using what’s considered weapons of mass destruction or biological warfare if it increases their own political agenda. It wouldn’t take much toxin to infect a few workers here and there and instead of just causing a power outage we could face multiple nuclear meltdowns... I mean it’s easy to bump into folks at bar or at the beach all the time that say they work for one of the plants. The workers at those plants are freely accessible by anyone once they leave work. Or maybe we should think about the cyber attack we have already experienced, were the Nuclear plants themselves directly or indirectly hacked also? Those plants could now be leaking radiation because of mechanical or technical difficulties that we are unaware of and rather than them being restarted to try to turn the lights back on, we could be dependant on workers scurrying to prevent a major meltdown somewhere. Damn utilities and the government will hush that up long as they can I bet once one starts leaking.” David said watching his audience intently for their reactions.

“Hell David, are you saying that the terrorists are going to be releasing some kind of viruses?” Sally said looking around like she might see a poisonous pink fog shaped like a skull or something drifting their way.

“That’s not what he meant at all Sally. Let me explain it differently. He was saying that the nuclear plant up the road might be having technical problems now that we don’t know yet about it or for that matter, whether or not any plant in the country might be experiencing major difficulties. Nuclear plants are not made to be shutdown and moth balled without a lot of ongoing work and preparation before you hit the switch. What he was saying about the viruses was that whoever attacked us is capable of doing anything and it’s not like waiting for the utility truck after a hurricane to get your lights back on. I think the gist what David was talking about is to expect more attacks and expect more technological failures to make life a whole lot harder on us all. Am I right David?” Julie asked looking in his direction for affirmation.

“Yea something like that Julie, but the point I am trying to get across is we got to hope for the best, but expect the worst to happen and plan accordingly. You know Sally; you might want to think about this for a moment. Let me ask you a question. What do most people do when they are at home and the power goes out?... They wait. They wait for the government or state to send help and they wait for the power to come back on. Just sit and wait” ” David said letting the notion sink in that a lot folks were still waiting for the Cavalry to arrive and would keep on waiting around for the government to come rescue them.

“What I am saying to you and Mr. Will here is that the two of you, or should I say the 3 of you counting your Grandpa need to start making your plans and prepare for yourselves before the rest of the folks stop waiting on the lights to come back on and eventually start thinking for themselves to go after the same resources you need now for your own survival. Get a jump or head start on the competition if you know what I mean. Anyway, back to the actual situation we have at hand. Those cities which are still operating with electricity out in the Midwest might just be living on borrowed time. I mean there is no guarantee they will remain unscathed and unmolested by who ever attacked us. The power could go out for them also after a progression of cascading electrical events just like it has every other time we have had a major blackout in the U.S. or Canada. The grid system is an antiquated, bulky and weak linked thing. Dosent takes much to throw things out of sync. Think about also when this food shortage we are in worsens because farmers can’t get fuel for their tractors or they don’t have electricity to power their water pumps for irrigation in order to grow crops? If you can’t get the crops out of the fields or ship what ever excess there is that might somehow be grown depending on the rain this summer to a distribution point we got more problems. Lots of things will cause no aid to be coming. No aid to be coming ever for that matter. From fuel shortages, crop failure, disease etc. we must consider that we might also no longer have anyone who can work at the power plants, drive the trucks etc. for the same reasons. I could go on and on but I am not here to try and scare or worry you more than I already have. What I am saying to you is that you best be thinking quickly and hard about how and where you’re going to be trying to live out your days, because chances are that whether power stays out for 6 months, a year or 2 years you need to deal with your food requirements for the foreseeable future now.. I don’t have any more groceries to give to anyone and this will pretty much be our last food donation we can give you. I mean that now, this is all there is unless I happen to shoot a deer or something if there is any left around here after everyone and their relatives try to do the same thing.” David told them resolutely and watched the warring emotions of astonishment, anger and confusion takeover the couple’s faces as shock and angst set in that David was basically telling them to starve to death or leave the area. But go where?

Will and Sally looked crest fallen for the moment before their southern pride took over and they slowly regained their composure.

“David I am really sorry I even had to ask you for food and I can say for myself and the family that we are very grateful to you even if we haven’t showed it much. Knowing what I know now about our situation and everyone else’s around sort of makes me ashamed that I even had to come over here asking the second time. But that’s the way it is, we really truly need those supplies. We wont bother you no more after this lot, don’t worry about that. You are still going to help us out one more time aren’t you David? I mean think of it as giving us a little food to get by on just for now until we can make us a plan to survive for ourselves I mean.  I reckon me and grandpa will be talking pretty deep about moving on somewhere, I don’t know just what he might suggest, I just hope he has got more ideas than me at the moment.” Will said hopeful whatever David was going to give him would last more than a few days while gently reminding David of his feelings about his friendly but aloof relationship with his grandfather.

“Sure I will, Julie grab that box of goods we got together for them please.” David asked and wondered if he should go talk to the old man himself.

“You need some help?’ Sally asked Julie who was starting to get up.

“No I got it.” Julie replied hurrying away from the table as Sally sat herself back down.

“They ain`t getting even a nat`s ass glimpse of what’s behind that door!’ Julie thought resolutely as she made her way back to the house. “It is bad enough that they will probably be trying to figure out what we got food wise put up based upon what we are giving away to them” she fumed. They might start thinking something foolish as soon as they got their box of goods like ”oh since they gave us two cans of beanie weenies then that must mean they got at least 8 more cans they kept for themselves.

Or maybe they would imagine that this must be the least favorite kind of food we had
to give up and what kind of other delicacies were we holding back from them? They damn sure didn’t need to see all the gear inside neither. What passed for a living room in the small house had prepper gear like bug out bags scattered about that needed to be secured better.

Julie came back shortly to the picnic table with the box and left the shotgun inside figuring it was no longer being used as necessary deterrent, however she did retain the comfort of her pistol.

“That will get you by for more than a week if you’re careful.” Julie advised.

“Yea get innovative in the kitchen, chili con carne over spaghetti isn’t bad and you will fall in love with cream of chicken soup and rice.” David said making some recipe suggestions.

“Humm chili con carne, Chili without beans huh? Never seen it before, sounds like a meat sauce.” Sally said examining a can.

“Yea it is, think of a chili hotdog. This is what David used to make them with. Its Hormel brand so the can stores longer than most other brands.” Julie told them becoming much more relaxed while talking about hard timing or comfort food. David and she had a ton of made up recipes and ad hoc ways to fix things in the pantry that they ate if they didn’t want to go to the store or couldn’t afford too already.

“Well we really appreciate it. Thank you!” Sally beamed and gave Julie a hug.

David deftly avoided getting hugged himself and changed the subject.

“Hey Will, do you know anything about trapping or snaring?” David inquired.

“No, unless a box and a piece of string counts.” Will said smiling.

Out of his own personal meanness, frugalness or just his own thoughts on his chances of personal survivability he wasn’t going to give up even one modern animal cable snare. David had decided to give the neighbors on this case to just supply the bare minimum of knowledge about snaring with homemade snares and said nothing of his stash of commercially made ones. Commercial snares made from aircraft cable could make all the difference in the world in greatly enhancing his own personal chances for success.

He had decided in regards to whoever else came to him or his door in need of or begging for food that he would claim to be only getting food for himself by foraging, hunting and a bit of trapping using what ever bits of wire or strong cordage he had around the place to catch the occasional small animal for the pot with a snare.

His soon to be newly initiated greenhorn neighbor amateur trappers stood much less chance of success with their own clumsy and most likely flimsy attempts to ensnare some sustenance. Thus they were much less competition to his own trap lines success rate in providing game for his table.

Hells bells, he muttered to himself
. He already knew they would be most likely thinking about asking him for some spare bits of wire or string to construct a snare once he mentioned the concept and explained the basics. He would tell them he had none to spare of course and also tell them he was sorry for that fact, but he would tell them how to scavenge some usable material that their non prepper minds would have taken awhile to come up with on their own.

The solution to not lending snare wire was very easy and obvious; every household has a bunch of electrical cords. Strip the plastic off and harvest the copper wire and twist or untwist it into the appropriate size wire for whatever critter it is your going after. Pull the wire off of pictures etc. Unwind an electric motor, get your Xmas decorations out just search around where ever your imagination takes you and locate the means to survive for yourself.