The Solitary Man’s Refuge (19 page)

Anyway, we will still be getting ice for weeks to
come, but it will be scarce. Cops are going to be on patrol,
but no radios and no 911. The National Guard will be
either notified in person or eventually by the sheriff’s
department to report for duty or they will just report to the
armories on their own. Infra Guard, whoever the hell they
are in this city, will be getting notifications and orders.
That’s a creepy bunch to think about. Their web site
describes them as “InfraGard is a partnership between the
Federal Bureau of Investigation and the private sector.
InfraGard is an association of businesses, academic
institutions, state and local law enforcement agencies, and
other participants dedicated to sharing information and
intelligence to prevent hostile acts against the United
States.” Those suckers got some odd powers over life and
death in these type situations, so say the conspiracy
theorists.

So life goes on if they can keep the system going.
Main thing is sewage and water. Can you imagine what
would happen if a jail or prison had no sewage service?
They probably let out a bunch of petty criminals to lighten
the load but then what?

What about the insane asylums and old folks
homes? Special needs group homes? The school for the
blind? There ain’t but 3 Emergency managers in this city.
They usually rely on county and state to tell them what to
do and send in help so they are going to be pretty
worthless in this situation and sorely overworked. They are
the direct disaster communication connection though to
the school boards, fire department, chamber of commerce,
port authority etc. etc. though, and will be called upon to
help coordinate all the different agencies and institute the
general approved emergency plan in their books.

That reminds me. I hope the bastards don’t call me
up for duty. You know I am in the Disaster Reserve as a
GS 10 to help arrange loans to get people through
disasters. I made sure that job description said “non
essential personnel” security clearance only, before I took
it though. A lot of them jobs say essential personnel which
means they can force you to work and send you anywhere
in the continental US if they want. I can turn down up to
two assignments without penalty during my hitch before
they can my ass normally. I don’t know if I care to be doing
that job at the moment. If they want to send me
somewhere, no way I quit. But my duty station is listed as
here so I shouldn’t be assigned anywhere else. I could
help with the recovery of this city and state. That could get
real interesting, maybe. Kind of like having easy access to
the lid on the cookie jar and getting to listen to various
government types evaluate the situation and make plans.

Hell, I might want to do that. Not if they putting us all
up in a hotel or barracks for our “protection” though. He
had been through enough of those drills in the National
Guard where they say come down and sign some papers
about your retirement and found himself locked in an
armory with part of his unit and the MP`s putting barbed
wire barricades at the entrances. You would sit there for a
few hours as your Commander, Executive Officer and First
Sergeant described a problem with some country you had
not even heard of and that we are getting ready to go get
deployed there. No phone calls out, no phone calls in. Do
not leave the building you are in under the Uniform Code
of Military justice and are subject to all the penalties we
signed up for when we enlisted. There was always a big
wooden easel set up with cloth-covered posters in the
center of the room. Each officer in turn would use a long
wooden pointer to point out an area on a global map or a
relevant cultural fact about the people inhabiting the
country or the way their soldiers think. Once in a while,
they would crack the damn thing on the table to make a
point. Then at the end of the day, they tell you this was all
BS and go home or that it wasn’t a drill and you actually
were heading out in 24 hours, God knows where. All us
soldiers in that unit got to watching that damn easel closely
to see if it had been moved even slightly or that the cloth
they used to cover the placards for security was missing
from where it was usually just thrown on a shelf.

Then we would send one of the longer enlisted
types to go try to find out if we had a drill coming up so we
didn’t sit in suspense so long and he would whisper to us
what was up. I think they started to intentionally leak “drill”
to us after seeing we were getting a bit riotous after a few
false scares.

Damn! I don’t have any special place to report in
except by phone. Well, I take that back. The agency I work
for has a government office here but I don’t know anyone
in there. I only work when they call from DC or Atlanta and
say report in.

Shit! Now I got to decide do I want to wait on them,
report in or not do it. Maybe they don’t even have enough
money to hire me? That is going to be a bitch. We had to
have defaulted on all our government loans with other
countries and they did the same back to us. Means the
dollar is dead, well not dead yet but might as well be. They
probably will issue that AMERO currency crap now > Hell,
they had pictures of the coins out on the internet of it for
years already. Probably got trillions of Amero`s stacked up
in a damn warehouse somewhere ready for distribution
since the news was first leaked to the public. This is not a
drill! Ha, Ha, jokes on me!

Ah, man! I got to take that job, I would be crazy not
to, even if I don’t want it. Shit. That will make me the only
one of us that has a real dependable job in this new
economy being paid in something tradable to purchase
what’s available to buy for a while. You will be depending
on me as well as this community for me to get out some
new money and try and keep commerce going. This wasn’t
in my plans at all!” a shocked and bewildered Donald said,
looking like some kind of old professor trying to work out a
difficult equation and pacing the kitchen floor with his head
down and rubbing his scalp for answers.

“That won’t be so bad, Don! You done a lot harder
things and that’s what you’re trained best in.” His mom
said, brightly smiling and thinking now she didn’t have to
leave her home if Donald got the job.

“
Wait a minute now. How exactly does that federal
agency hiring thing work? He already has the federal job
because he was put on a list of employees for the Disaster
Reserve, but they only called him up when needed to go to
certain disasters. Wouldn’t they need him now as big of a
disaster as this was?” Betty thought, not understanding
how or when Donald was going to “work”.

“Yea, Don, you like Emergency Management. You
will be able to try and get rid of a lot of that bureaucracy
and be able to personally help good people through the
system like you said you wanted to. You were getting your
doctorate so you could try and change or influence
Homeland Security policies to a more holistic and
academic socially and culturally aware approach versus
the command and control military model they currently
use.” Janice said, reminding him of his old academic
passions that no longer mattered much to him.

“Like I said, I will do it. But I just don’t see myself
being stuck in an office somewhere, lord knows how many
hours a day and then having to return to a compound or
hotel somewhere for a few hours sleep and not being able
to communicate or check on my farm or you all. Hell, I just
as soon take my chances driving to work everyday even if
folks were jealous. Crap, I hope that staff car, company car
or whatever it is they are going to give me don’t have
government license plates on it. Let’s paint a big old bull’s
eye on my butt too, in case someone misses the tags and
styling of the vehicle. We usually just get rental cars when
deployed out in the field, though, so I won’t sweat it but it’s
going to depend on where they are going to get the gas to
keep this tiddly wink match going. I can see vans to work
and drivers for appointments. I got some rank, though, I
may get my own.

Getting to those government buildings can be
suicide though, maybe if you’re just a lone vehicle. People
are going to see the lights on in the buildings and wonder
why they can’t have the same and start protesting around
them. Shit, the state capitol is just up the street. Nice place
for a little riot concerning food stamps and welfare checks
equal no food protest or riot depending on how the cops
handled it. That is way too screwed up to think on. Even if
they were locking down cities under martial law there will
be many instances when he would be required to travel in
order to interview his clients. It was illegal for him to carry
a concealed civilian weapon (CCW) while performing his
federal duties. (Screw you, FEMA, for creating that one).
So he was going to be putting his butt on the line everyday
whether he chose to follow the guideline and law or not. If
he did carry anyway and got caught, best-case scenario,
they fire him. Worst case, he goes to Leavenworth Federal
prison for 5 yrs for defying the order. Lord forbid if he used
his own personal gun to defend himself as a Citizen
working for the FED. He has no citizens’ rights; His state
concealed carry pistol permit is only valid when he is off
duty. How screwed up is that?” Donald ranted getting
some fire in his eyes.

“
These folks just don’t get it, (referring to his
mother and Janice). I am going to be required to give up
all my freedoms and my choice for personal safety and
protection just for the sake of my friends and families to
keep them living in a manner they are accustomed to.
Well, that don’t sound right, people do that everyday
regardless, as just being a responsible adult or family
member. What I mean though, is that I already made
places and stored food to do exactly that for them that will
be unused by me mostly and I can’t be there to help them
other than maybe send money. Damn, now I sound like a
migrant worker. What am I trying to say here anyway?”
Donald thought trying to put his conflicting emotions into
words.

“I hadn’t thought about the dangers or you having
to stay somewhere other than my house while you were
working in town.” Donald’s Mom said, thinking the country
might be better for her and Donald to go instead of being
in the same city but rarely seeing each other. She would
be alone except for if Janice visited her upon occasion, if
she stayed in town.
“I think what I am trying to say here is that, at the

moment, I see it as a 50/50 chance right now that if and I
mean IF! the government gets the Amero thing going,
manages to get the railroads going again and folks don’t
get too crazy then we will get a reasonably rapid recovery
of sorts and the big cities will still be hubs on industry and
commerce. It will still take years to get the grid back
working if this was a worldwide event, though. I can easily
see that happening. Look at China, Russia, all of Europe

century and they lost electricity over vast areas as well as
had famine and government repression that killed
countless millions and civilization came back. So
historically speaking, we are like centuries of history have
proven to us, recover in some manner and move on. If you
are one of those that think Darwin’s theory of survival of
the fittest applies you are dead wrong. We wouldn’t have
so many congenital diseases or near sightedness etc.
being passed along for generations if this was true. Hell,
there is an optical shop on every corner. People will reform
civilization regardless of what’s going on and be whatever
mix of people and genes or brains they have that makes
them survivors. I am just not liking to be in hamster mode
on the wheel again and not being able to share our life
experiences. Does that sound petty or jealous? Doesn’t to
me, I want to share some life and kind of retire from this
emergency management as a prepper not an
administrator. But you’re right, I got the calling for it and
not to sound like my arrogant ass is trying to be humble, I
know they will screw it up and need me to help try to fix it.
It is a sacrifice that I feel I must do, but if I ask my self if I
want to, the answer is no, I want to get on with my own life
and dedicated enough time to this. Another part of me
says serve and serve humanity and country always. My
problem is I don’t think they can pull it off based on my
experience and knowledge and don’t feel like spending the
end of days in some thankless office some anarchist or
terrorist with a misdirected grudge is possibly going to
blow up for shits and giggles because they think I, as a
representative of the government, have somehow not
done my job for society sufficiently.

It will be like everyone of the combatants looks the
same and the only one that looks like I got a uniform and
acts like a enemy is me and I also look like the only hope
in the world for others to beg from and get the guilty
conscience syndrome if I can’t produce a miracle of
logistics to help them.

Do you know that 5 million people just
disappeared after the Great Depression? Poof! They were
recorded on the census before it and were unaccounted
for after it. They were gone with out a trace. Nobody
knows what really happened to them other than that they
were missing in the population on the next census.
Researchers suspect they starved to death or met
untimely acts of violence that caused them to become an
unrecorded statistic. The actual count is suspected to be
far higher than that as the comparison census is
considered very inaccurate and that didn’t account for
migrant workers or unregistered voters. Thing is we are
going to have a vast underclass of people begin
disappearing now. No one is keeping up with the homeless
or borderline mentally insane on the streets now to see
they get fed. Hell, they probably will live longer than
established people because they are used to the survival
tricks it takes to actually live on the streets for a long
period of time.