Clark Stories

[Lbox88]

7.

Clark’s dad asked what was left to do. Clark said 1 more solar panel 2 more golf cart batteries and more long term food. His dad said like what kind of food. Clark said if you check around on Honeyville website you will see. But I think a case of butter powder, white and chocolate milk powder, peas, corn and mixed vegetables, maybe even a case of whole egg powder. I am going to pull some suckers off those wild blackberries and plant them on the back side of the fence and go down to the river and pull some raspberry canes up and put them on the other side of the fence. Clark said if you can get a good buy on a 100 ever bearing strawberries I think you should plant them by the house. His dad said no the rabbits and birds will eat them all before they are ripe. Clark said well we should plan on buying a case or 2 of dried strawberries and blueberries. His dad said I will tell you what I will do. I will plant 2 full size red delicious, 2 Granny Smith apples, 2 Georgia peaches and 2 pear trees by the creek bank. It will be 5 or 6 years before we get any fruit. But we can always go to that abandoned apple orchard on the other side of the river and gather up several bushels until ours start producing.

Clark’s dad lucked out at Lowes, he and Clark’s mom arrived just as the remaining fruit trees were marked down 75% because it was so late in the season to plant them. He got 3 red delicious trees; one was a dwarf and 2 Elberta peach trees. He would have to wait till this fall to order the pear and Granny Smith apple trees.

The month of June Clark relocated about 40 suckers off the growing wild blackberries and planted them on the back side of the fence. He and his dad took the 14 foot john boat and motored down close to the dam that controlled the locks that let the barges up river to the plant. They dug up about 30 new growth raspberry canes and replanted them that evening.

Clark told his dad as soon as I get 1000 bucks I will take care of what is on my list. I know there are lots of things we forgot or have not thought of but we are in really good shape for a lot of bad things to happen.

Clark had his 1000 bucks and more before the 4th of July. He won 500 dollars at one table and told everyone he needed a break for an hour or so. When he came back his seat had been taken which was expected as soon as he left he waited for a seat at another table and quickly got lucky and won 700 dollars. He did the same thing at that table and joined the 3rd table and won 400 dollars and left with both pants pockets bulging with cash. He would not play again for 3 weeks. When he got home he separated the money out, a pile for the items on his list, a pile for college tuition, a pile for mad money and a pile for rent/food and 100 dollars for his mom. He had a credit/debit card but when he purchased anything he bought money orders hoping the IRS would not be looking at a poor college student buying lots of things on no job salary.

On a Tuesday morning while Clark was drinking a cup of coffee on the back porch looking up at the mountains day dreaming; his dad said I have a small job for you. Clark thought uh oh it ain’t gonna be a small job and will probably take me 2 or 3 days of hard manual labor. He was almost right. His dad said I want you to get a load of gravel at the cement plant, they will load it for you and here is the 20 bucks. I want you to spread it all the way around the chicken coop out about 4 feet and hopefully it will be 2 or 3 inches deep if it is not let me know and we will get another truck load. After you get that done I want you to use that water proof paint that is left over and paint the chicken feed trash cans and put them up on some bricks to keep them from rusting out. It took him all that day to get 2 loads of gravel and spread it out. The trash can painting was put off till tomorrow. His dad told him where to get a small batch of bricks from a building they were demolishing on the back street across from the college. The next morning he saw all the bricks were broken and the ones that weren’t had a half inch of mortar stuck to them. He went to the cement plant used some of his mad money and bought 24 for 40 cents each.

The next morning he went with his mom to check on the chickens and he laughed when all 30 chickens made a mad dash down the chicken run in a single file. They all stopped when the leader stopped and started pecking the grass and looking for bugs. His mom said as soon as those small plants get 2 more inches higher I am going to turn them loose in the garden and then we hopefully won’t have to hoe anymore. He asked her what she was going to do when one of them started pecking on the plants. She looked at him and said we eat a small chicken for supper. He did not know if she was serious or not. Why don’t you pull the house hose over and spray the place out today it has been 5 days since we did it and it is starting to get icky in there. He said OK I think as long as it is warm I will spray it out every 3 days. The place will be dry long before they get ready to go in tonight because we put a little slope on the floor to the left side to let the water drain out. He thought a bucket of water and a push broom would take care of the coop floor during the winter.

8.

His mom said look at the back corner of the fence. It was a coyote. He called his dad on his cell phone and told him to turn the power on to the fence. The coyote was getting ready to dig under the fence when his nose touching the fence was blasted with a super jolt of electricity. He fell over and twitched for a few seconds, got up staggered a few steps and took off running up the hillside. His mom said I bet he won’t be back. Clark called his dad again and told him to turn the power off. They kept the power off during the day while the chickens were out and turned it on late at night when they were back in the coop. They were actually safe in the coop unless a bear got inside the fence but no one had seen a bear on this side of the river in many years. Clark was willing to bet the amount of electricity flowing through the fence would kill a raccoon, squirrel, mink or rabbit. The fence was electrified off the electrical grid and he knew the small solar charger and battery would not do a tenth as much damage as grid power would. One of the 4th year electrical engineer students had told him what to buy to keep the cost down while charging the whole fence and the used equipment was fairly cheap. Clark had a suspicion as to why there were no bears on this side of the river. He had seen 8 or 9 bear skulls mounted on the house the boys lived in. When they left the garden he shut the gate and read the big hand painted sign red on white that said do not touch fence or gate unless you are sure the power is off.

He decided to wear his Ruger 22 pistol while on the property because he could have made sure one coyote was dead if he had had it on him.

July looked like it was going to be a lazy month for Clark until his dad said we need a fairly large root cellar for the potatoes, carrots, squash, apples, pears and onions we don’t have enough refrigeration or freezer space to handle all the produce we are going to get. Your mom doesn’t want to dehydrate or can 500 pounds of potatoes, squash or onions – some things we like fresh. Clark asked him if he had thought about how to hold the walls and the ceiling up. His dad said yes. You will need some help after you get the hole dug but before you rent the backhoe to dig the hole you will need to gather up some materials and make another set of steps. I want the hole right here about 4 feet from this corner of the fence that will make it easy to run a wire off the fence charge battery to put a couple of DC lights in the place. You will have to make 4 trips to the cement factory and get 2 loads of sand and 2 loads of gravel for the floor and you can do that today. I got paid last night from those students and here is 80 dollars to get the sand and gravel.

That evening after supper Clark’s dad threw him a book from the library that said Root Cellars by Rodale Press. Read it he told Clark. After Clark had read the book he saw that there was a lot of science that went into root cellars. He had made about 2 pages of notes and used his copy machine to copy the temperature and humidity tables for various vegetables.

The next morning his dad asked him if he had read the book. Clark nodded his head. His dad said I was going to make it 8 X12 but after I thought about it and if the material is still at that abandoned strip mine it will be 16 X 16 – Clark never said a thing he knew his dad would get to the point directly. He said we need 20 ¼ or 3/8 inch by 4 X 8 foot slabs of roadway steel to do it right. You will need one of the boys to go with you to load them on the truck you can probably get 6 on the truck tow-a-long at a time. I hope you can find eight 10 foot long pieces of 4 inch steel pipe to hold the roof up and attach the door frame to. If you get all that I have already called my friend that works in the mine buggy rebuild shop. He will rent you out the 2 tanks of acetylene and oxygen to cut those slabs for the door and weld this stuff together; I have the torches and hose. We will buy the welding rods at the welding shop.

3 days later Clark had gathered all the materials up except for the welding rods and tanks. He said dad I only see one thing wrong with what you want to do. And what is that. You will have a problem with the heavy sheets of steel sinking into the ground when you put the 3 feet of dirt back on top. His dad said you are right we will have to put a 4 X 8 inch deep footer around the outer edge to hold the weight up. He said I can get the 2 boys to trench that out after you get the hole dug mix some graveled concrete up, add in some concrete wire, make a 3 inch groove in the footer for the steel plate and that should solve that problem. His dad said I was hoping I could get by dirt cheap on this by just renting the tanks, buying some rods and renting the back hoe. Clark said I have 300 dollars mad money. His dad mentally figured a little bit said give me 125 dollars and we can get by.

Clark had to make another trip back to the abandoned strip mine where he removed a 4 foot by 7 foot metal door frame from one of the abandoned buildings and manhandled a 10 foot piece of rusted 6 inch steel pipe up into the tow-a-long.

The next day he bought a gallon of creosote and 2 plastic metal screened 6 inch and 2 solid caps for the 6 inch steel pipe he was going to use to draw in bottom ground cold air by the bottom steps and exit humid air out the top of the root cellar to try and control the humidity. He ordered a good temperature gage with a humidity indicator on it and picked up 2 ceramic pull chain lights at the hardware store.

He thought a while before he cut another oak tree down and again drove back to the abandoned strip mine – he was glad he did the 10 foot steps leading up to the abandoned tipple were treated 4 foot wide 2 X 12 oak and the stringers were already cut for him. He went ahead and cut them to size and creosoted them just to add a little more rot protection. There was another 4X8 piece of sign plastic that he could use to keep the wood from making dirt contact.

August the root cellar was done except for hanging a door. Something else came up that they had not thought of. After a 2 day hard rain they saw there was about 8 inches of water at the bottom of the steps leading into the cellar. Clark just said more work and more money. His dad agreed with him. They decided to either build a small pole barn type covering or buy one of those half car ports. After checking the price of the car port Clark drove to the junk yard looking for something to use. He ended up buying 3 aluminum 4 X 8 foot advertising signs and six 10 feet by 3 inch water pipes for 28 dollars.

Returning home his dad said go cut down five 10 foot or longer 3 inch hardwoods. His dad left and came back shortly after Clark returned with the trimmed trees. He had two 4 X 8 foot pieces of used nail holed 3/4 inch plywood and a tube of 35 year roofing caulk and some type of caulk gun metal wood glue. His dad said cut 4 inches off the end of the 2 pieces of plywood and 4 inches off 1 side long ways. Using all the pieces of 2 X 6 they screwed and glued the plywood seam down to them and the rest all the way around the outside edge and the center X. Clark was just following instructions when he finally figured out what his dad was telling him to do. The 3 inch hardwoods were quickly debarked screwed and glued to the 2 X 6’s forming a square. One 3 inch piece was run from opposite corner to corner and the other was cut going from corner to middle forming an X. Clark said we must have used 15 dollars worth of 5 and 6 inch screws and big flat washers. His dad said we are not done yet. He pulled out a holed piece of 2 inch wide metal stock about 12 inches long ¼ inch thick and said screw the cut pieces forming the X in the center together using this with 2 inch screws and that should pull it together for 40 or so years. Clark said this thing is heavy and his dad said I want it to be heavy to keep it from flexing in the wind. Just a few more things to do this evening and we will finish it up tomorrow. Go bring 2 of those 2 X 12 pieces of treated oak left over from the steps. Cutting them into 2 foot pieces he slid them up against the corners of the 3 inch wood forming the corners and the X and glued and screwed them onto the plywood. His dad said you were lucky those pipes you brought home from the junkyard were threaded. Tomorrow morning we will hopefully spend the last 12 or so dollars and get the threaded flange couplings that screw onto the pipe and it will almost be ready to put up. Clark grinned when his dad said almost ready which meant 4 or 5 more hours of work or more.

9.

The next morning they oiled the threads on the pipe and saw the pipe would easily screw into the female threaded end flange that was screwed on the 6 treated 2 X 12’s in the corners. Clarks dad said let’s glue the aluminum on before we paint it. They glued the 3 aluminum sheets on shiny part down for better adhesion and Clark s dad handed him 26 3/4 inch neoprene washered brass screws. He said drill the pilot holes around the edges and down the 2 center lines before you screw them in. Clark quickly ran a bead of calk down the middle overlapping 2 seams of aluminum and covered each screw with a dollop. They took a 2 hour break letting the caulk harden and the glue set up. Clark quickly painted the top of the aluminum with some of the exterior green waterproof paint. After the top dried they painted underneath and went off to help mom do something while the bottom dried.

The following morning Clark was handed a post hole digger and told 2 foot deep in the front and 3 foot deep at the back and sides. His dad came back with some sand, gravel and a bag of cement in the wheel barrow. They had checked the weather and it was supposed to be calm and sunny. They screwed the freshly painted pipe into the bottom of the roof fittings and dropped it in the holes. Clark went and got 2 X 4’s and tied them to the front 2 and middle poles to stabilize them while he threw the cement in the holes and his dad leveled the poles. They finished the last 2 holes the next morning. Not bad his dad said for 93 dollars. Clark grinned again and thought yes and 1500 dollars worth of my free labor. His dad said I have an easy job for you this time. He told Clark to burn the transmission fluid or heavy oil in those 6 55 gallon barrels in the back of his truck and take them to the car wash after you have burned all the fluid in them and make sure you burn the inside of the lid. Then tomorrow He handed him 40 dollars and told him to fill the barrels with chicken feed. Clark said but dad this is not enough money. His dad grinned and walked off. Clark just said bummer on me. That night his dad told him to make sure he put some dry ice in the barrels while filling them before clamping the lid down and to make sure they were up on bricks before he filled them in the pole barn.

School started in a week and Clark was anxious to see if the spark was still there between him and the pretty girl.

Clark asked his dad what he had in mind for the door and his dad said after I build my cash up a little bit I think 1 inch treated plywood separated by 2 X 6’s with 6 inches of insulation between the 1 inch plywood. We already have the fiber glass insulation and then waterproof paint the door. All I have to buy is 1 sheet of plywood and 5 or six 2 X 6’s you already have the heavy 4 hole hinges. I have no idea what we are going to put on those 24 inch iron brackets we welded onto the walls for shelving. We definitely can’t use fresh cut wood it would warp so bad it would look like a curled up snake. Let me call the saw mill and see what kind of price they have on some kiln dried 1 X 12 inch rough oak planks.

It made no difference what the price of the wood was it would be another 2 weeks before mad money was available to purchase any items. Clark was not going to get into his college or gambling money for a door or shelving that would not be needed for a month or more. If it would have been an emergency he would have done it.

On the way to school his cell phone rang it was the mathematician. She asked how his summer had gone. He told her he had worked so hard he had no hands, arms or legs left. Her laughter was melodious.

School was the same old drag and he genuinely wondered if he had gotten any smarter. He thought about that for a bit and decided he hadn’t. He also had not been offered a job when he was close to graduation. Maybe things would get better when he got his masters degree but he did not think so. He would be 30 soon and he wondered if he was too old to get a job. He threw that thinking out and thought about his date this weekend. She was coming to his house and had volunteered to help his mom can some and cook a dinner.

Clark was going to Big Ed’s beer joint this Friday to see if he could pick up 3 or 400 dollars and the following week go to the dorm card games for a month or so.

The Saturday day time date was a winner and the girl whose name was Sophia who kind of looked like that 50 or 60 year ago screen star won both his parents over. His mom just said she was a keeper and he should hang onto her. Everyone found out a little about her. She was from Delaware, was an only child and lived with her mother who had been diagnosed with cancer and was in a hospice with no hope. That slowed the conversation down for a while but she was bubbly about it and just said God works in mysterious ways. Strong faith Clark thought.

Clark told her she could come to his house to visit his parents or him anytime she wanted to but he sometimes would not be there 4 or 5 hours on some Friday and Saturday nights. She asked him if he had that many women friends and Clark laughed and said no I have to make a living and I am a fair to middling card player. She said you are a gambler - he said no I really don’t like to spend time in a smoky room with a bunch of sometimes drunk red neck cussing fellow’s playing cards. It is the only way I can make a little spending money pretty easily without having a real job which one day I hope to have.

The next Saturday about noon Sophia showed up just as Clark was finishing up painting the completed cellar door. She said that is a big door where are you going to hang it. He thought back to the last time she was here and no one had mentioned the root cellar. He grabbed her hand getting paint on it and said follow me. She said Oh, a real root cellar. My aunt had one on her small farm but it was a teeny dirt one that they used many years ago. He said I have to go to the saw mill Tuesday after class and pick up the rough cut dried lumber for the shelving. She said I am free that afternoon. He said it looks like I will have company.

Clark asked where his dad was Sunday morning and his mom said he went over to the beer joint and the drug store to pick up the milk crates they have been buying and saving from the milk man every week ever since he decided to build a root cellar. About that time his dad pulled in front of the house with about 40 plastic milk crates stacked high in the bed of the pick up. Clark’s dad said 1 more trip after while and we will have enough to store our produce in the cellar. He told Clark some of those crates are really nasty with dried rotten milk and meat grease on the bottoms. Clark said I know clean them but I think I will drive your truck to school for the next week and use the car wash to save myself a bunch of time and labor. His dad asked Clark whether they should paint the shelves and Clark without hesitation said yes because that will insure they don’t draw any moisture and warp on us. Clark’s dad said I will order a gallon of the waterproof paint because I don’t think there is enough left to do the job. His mom said next weekend will be potato and carrot digging time. It will be a while before the winter squash is ready. I left the garlic and onions in the ground until it was time to hang and dry them. I guess I will hang some under the pole barn this week.

Tuesday afternoon Clark and Sophia made the 30 mile trip to the saw mill up a curvy winding 2 lane blacktop road. The saw mill workers helped Clark load the big heavy stack of wood in the pick up bed. Sophia said that is a big stack of wood. Clark said yes and it looks like you will get to help me paint it. She smiled.

Clark heard the shot as he drove into their driveway. He saw his mom grinning from ear to ear with her 20 gauge pump in her hands. She just said dead chicken hawk in garden. Clark went in the house and got a trash bag. Sophia tagged along behind him. He used a piece of old newspaper to pick the thing up by its claw and stuffed it in the bag. She asked about the newspaper he said bird flu. They double bagged and put the hawk in the metal trash container – He told her when its time to burn some bones and meat we will throw it on the bon fire. He then had to explain about burning the deer bones.

Sophia’s mom died right at Thanksgiving break – lucky in that she did not miss any school and unlucky she lost her mom. There were no services and she had her cremated.
All of her personal stuff she put in a storage locker and paid 2 years on it. Next she had her and her mom’s mail forwarded to the college address. She called her aunt and told her to occasionally check on the now mostly empty house that had the utilities turned off and the water lines drained. Since her mom’s lawyer had previously taken care of the legal paperwork when she had been admitted to the hospice there was nothing left for Sophia to do. The house was worth quite a lot of money and her dad (an insurance executive) had left the both of them a small fortune in insurance money when he died. Sophia was a well off young lady. She decided on her way back to college she did not want to live at her mom’s house anymore. She hated to sell the house in this down turn economy but after talking to Clark she did not think things would ever get any better. Sophia called her aunt and told her to find a good real estate agent and sell the house she would fax her power of attorney in the next few days after she found a local WV attorney to handle the small amount of legal paperwork.

She and Clark talked about it when she got back and she told him she had a good bit of money. Clark told her what the genius finance students had told him and she bought 5000 dollars worth of silver eagles, 2000 dollars of mercury dimes and about 5000 dollars of assorted American gold. Clark told her to buy a small safe and either bolt it down in her dorm room or bring it to his house for safekeeping. She did just that because she was a trusting person and she knew Clark and his family would do no wrong to her. She stored the silver, gold and 35000 dollars cash in the small safe. Clark kept it in his bedroom and told her not to give him the combination. No one knew that the 450,000 dollars she had in CD’s would be worthless in a short period of time. She would be thankful she had a little silver and gold that maybe someday would be worth something.

After Christmas dinner she learned all about the plans that Clark and his family had accomplished. She thought about it that night and the next day. She had written down the websites Clark had mentioned and since it was break time she started reading. She had her eyes opened and said I must have been stupid all those years not to have seen what was going on in the world and especially right here in the USA.

December the 29th when she drove back to Clark’s place she told him I want to get on board on this preparedness thing. He laughed and asked her what had gotten into her. She said let’s just say my eyes have been opened due to a quick learning experience. She handed him a list, he whistled and said this is going to cost a lot of money. She said I have a lot of money. As he went through her list he grinned at the first one which said #1. Evil Black Rifle. He asked her if she had money in the safe and she said yes but I do not want to spend any of that my CD’s are up for renewal and I have 10 days to do it so I am going to cash a 50000 dollar one in. This was a Thursday and the banks were open so they drove to City National and she filled out the paperwork and told the lady to deposit the 50000 dollars plus the 3000 dollar interest into her checking account. The lady looked at her with an eyebrow cocked. Sophia said college tuition and I am buying a new car. They drove to the big gun shop in the city and she bought 5 guns – the evil black rifle, a pump 20 gauge, a 10-22 rifle, a Ruger Mark 111 22 pistol and a 357 four inch barrel revolver. She told Clark I researched what I wanted. She also knew what kind of sights she wanted. A 1 X 4 vari X 111 Leupold for the AR, a 1 X 4 vari X 111 Leupold for the 22 rifle, a laser pistol grip for the 357 and 22 pistol; she had wide carry straps put on the rifles, and shotgun. She told the salesman she wanted quality hard cases for the long guns and a double pistol case for the pistols. I want 2 web belts and strap down holsters for the pistols. She almost bought a generation 2 night vision but remembering what she had learned she would order a generation 3 from the internet. She said she would be back in 5 or 6 days when you open back up after New Year’s to pick everything up. Clark told her she was forgetting something she looked at him. He said bullets, powder, primers, dies, shotgun shells for her shotgun and cleaning equipment. Turning her page over she saw it and said I was also going to buy a reloading press and he said no we have 2 good ones. Clark looked at what he thought was 1000 pounds of bullets and accessories on the cart and asked the salesman if they had anyone to load it up in the truck. They sure did. It was the salesman himself that loaded it up.

Around the 5th of January they picked everything up and carried it to his house. She said I can shoot a little bit but I want you to take me to a safe shooting place to try all this new stuff out. He said it is just right up the road a little bit. They would not get to shoot her new guns right then because it stayed cold and school started 4 days later.

[Lbox88]

10.

She asked him the following weekend if he had corn stored in the basement – he said only a small amount - she said I am ordering 400 pounds of yellow corn from Honeyville because the shipping is only 4.49, I am also ordering several other things to get me about 6 or more month’s long term supply of food I like to eat. He said if you order it or buy it locally bulk I have 20 or more 5 gallon buckets to put it in and if you want we can make an evening of it and put it in mylar bags with some oxygen absorbers. She said great thinking. They were in the shelter looking over the place and she saw the 4 bunk beds, the heavy curtains hanging separating the beds and the toilet. His dad walked down and she asked him if his grinder would grind the corn she had ordered. They all looked at each other and said Country Living Grain Mill. She ordered one the next day with all the attachments and extra stones.

Clark had his dad get dental appointments for the family and Sophia made her one also.

The next weekend all of them inventoried the supplies and Clark and Sophia put it on a laptop food storage planning program. They had 1800 quart jars of meat and vegetables and the shelter shelves were overflowing. The family moved about 700 just canned jars to the root cellar and better organized the place.

Sophia and Clark had come to an agreement – they would get married a week after she graduated which would not be long and they would hopefully have a June wedding.

One Saturday while they were driving around she said take me to a diesel truck dealer. I want to see if I can find a 4 cylinder 4 wheel drive one. He looked at her and said a new or used one. She said an old used one that if I have to I can have a new motor put in and have it refurbished. She said that would be way cheaper than buying a 40 or 50000 dollar new 8 cylinder one. The dealer salesman said he knew where one was she wanted but would take a lot of work to get it running right.

They drove to the place the salesman told them the truck was. It was an early model 1986 Isuzu 2.2 liter 4wheel drive – Clark asked the man who had came out of the trailer if it would run. The man said the engine runs great but the 5 speed transmission needs to be repaired and I don’t have the 800 dollars to get it fixed. The only gear it will go in is reverse. He started the engine and it started right up and idled smoothly, well as smoothly as a diesel could idle. Clark saw a few rust spots, the tires were worn out, the odometer had 160 thousand miles on it, the drivers’ door window was cracked, and the right rear fender had a few big dents in it. Clark thought a good body man could make the truck look like a new one. Sophia asked what he wanted for the truck. He said 2500 dollars. She said I am worried about the transmission repair cost and the tires will have to be replaced. The man said 2000 dollars and that is the lowest I will take for it. She wrote him a check and he gave her the signed title and said we will be back tomorrow to tow it off. He said fine and thank you.

On the way home she said do you know any good auto body or transmission repairmen. He said dad does. His dad told them that evening I sure do know a firecracker of a body man and a transmission/engine repairman I’ll call them in the morning and see how busy they are.

The next morning they towed the truck to a small shop right on the side of the highway that Clark drove by every day. The place looked rundown and had several autos parked out in the weeds that had not moved in a while. There were 5 repair bays and 2 of them had lifts in them the others were separated into closed up looking garage spaces. Clark’s dad had told them the transmission and engine repairman was John Chapell and the body man was Joe Baker. The body man was not busy that week and said he could make the truck look like new. He asked Sophia what color she would like to have it painted. She said with a questioning grin on her face, pink. He spit some tobacco juice on the ground looked her in the eye and said nope. She countered with what would you recommend. He said dark green with light green striping. She said OK but how about just a solid green with no striping. He said that will work. I have 3 different prices I charge 8, 12 and 1600 the 16 will get you the same paint they put on new cars and will last 10 to 12 years without waxing, you don’t want to know about the other 2 prices. He said I am giving you this rate because I don’t have anything lined up right now. I will put a new bench seat in the cab because I see that one is torn and worn out for 390 more dollars. The cracked drivers window will cost 75 dollars to replace the glass and if you want the rusted bumpers re chromed that will cost 350 dollars more. Sophia wrote him a check for 1200 dollars and said fine I will pay you the rest when it is done. He said while I am working on the body John will pull the transmission and if it only needs a few cog gears it will cost about 600 if there are other things broken the price will go up. She wrote another check for 400 dollars for John and said would you please ask him to go over all the mechanical things on the engine and axles and repair them if anything needs fixing. Good tires mounted and balanced will run you about 150 bucks each. She said do you want me to pay you for the tires now. He said yes make this check out to Joe and John Auto Repair shop and come back in 4 to 6 weeks.

That evening Clark asked his dad about those 2 auto repairmen. His dad said those 2 are probably the best mechanic and body men in the state and what is nice about them is they are honest. That was all Clark needed to know and he told Sophia all she said is I hope so.

The Isuzu was ready in 5 weeks and looked like it just rolled off the showroom floor. John the transmission and engine mechanic told Sophia and Clark that the engine was in fine shape and he had repaired some brake cables, replaced brake pads and rebuilt the alternator. I recommend you buy a spare alternator from JC Whitney because sometimes the rebuilt ones don’t last long and while they are still available I recommend you buy a spare starter. I tuned the engine, repacked the wheel bearings, changed out the axle grease and when I tore the transmission down I filled it with fresh transmission oil and changed out the transfer case oil. Who ever owned the truck before you used synthetic oil so you might want to keep that in mind to keep on using it when you change the engine oil which I did and I put the mileage oil change sticker on the door. I expect you should get a couple more hundred thousand miles out of this truck if you take care of it.

Clark and Sophia immediately filled the 30 gallon tank up and went for a 200 mile ride to check the diesel fuel mileage. Sophia was happy with the 24 MPG she got on the highway. Clark told her she would not get that good of a mileage when she drove it around town or put it in 4 wheel drive. Clark figured she had bought the truck for SHTF because it was diesel fueled. He was right, when she asked him where she could put one of those single car - car ports up on his property to keep the truck out of the weather. Since there was plenty of room on the Clark property by the creek Clark asked his dad and he wholeheartedly approved of it. He did make one stipulation in that he wanted gravel to be put down to keep the new tires off the muddy ground in that location. The gravel was quickly laid down and an aluminum single car port was picked up and installed.

Sophia said to Clark I think I would like to have either a medium distance shooting rifle or a long range rifle or both. Clark said let’s see what’s available at the gun store. Sophia had done her homework and knew how to eliminate the recoil on a large 30 caliber rifle. She ordered a 300 Winchester magnum and had it ported and a recoil buffer installed in a synthetic stock and a 338 Lapua rifle and had it ported and a recoil buffer installed. She cashed in 2 more 50,000 dollar CD’s and paid the penalty. Clark had her order the reloading dies and some suitable powder and magnum primers and 1000 loaded rounds, 1000 rounds each of 3 different size bullets and 1000 rounds of empty brass for each rifle. She told Clark I believe those 2 rifles will take up the slack in mid-range and long range shooting. She also said I am going to bite the bullet and buy a 6X Raptor scope for each rifle and Leupold VariX3L 4X 14X50 scopes with a detachable scope mount for each rifle in case we have to do some night time shooting. She said I think I will put a bi-pod on the 338 because it is just a little heavy for me; I can handle the weight of the 300. He grinned at his wife to be because she had just spent a big chunk of one of the 50000 dollar CD’s.

Final exams and graduation were fast approaching for Sophia and Clark and they settled down for some hard studying.

11.

While spraying the chicken coop out Sophia asked Clark what he would do if there was no water pressure. He said I don’t know we will ask dad when he shows up this evening. His dad said that is one of the things we forgot but we have time to fix it, we will need a solar pressure tank or an electric air pump to pressurize a tank and a connection to the iron water pipe from the creek. Sophia said let me research it tonight and buy it. They both looked at her and Clark’s dad said we will pay you back. That night Sophia ordered more then just a 100 gallon solar powered water tank. She had seen no first aid supplies or long term vegetable seed packets so she ordered them and 500 dollars worth of anti-biotic and various things she thought of for what a small survival group may need from alldaychemist.com and 2500 dollars worth of shortwave radio equipment. After deducing they would probably end up drinking creek water 2 Big Berkey stainless steel filtering pots and 24 ceramic filters were ordered.

Sophia was not offered a job when she graduated even though she was in the top 5% of her class. The only job openings were for math and science teachers. She decided to go to summer school and the fall semester to get a teaching certificate.

They got married the 1st of June and flew to Atlantic City for a weekend honeymoon before she had to go to summer school. She moved out of the dorm into Clark’s 16 X 16 bedroom and promptly moved most of his clothes from the closet and dresser drawers to the spare bedroom closet and drawers. He loved it anyway.

The SHTF 21 June. Israel nuked Iran - Iran nuked Israel. Oil from the Mideast stopped flowing. The entire Mideast was in a country wide civil war. Pakistan thought they could get away with it and nuked India. The level 5 germ warfare laboratories in Iran, Pakistan, Israel and India were breached from the above ground detonations resulting in an untreatable (as in no vaccine available) form of super smallpox being released which was only one of many strains of unknown virus and bacteria contaminating everything. The US economy which had been on a downward spiral for 8 or so years continued at a now supersonic speed. The world knew US dollars were worthless and China and Russia refused to give anymore credit and Russia would not sell the US any more oil. The US strategic oil reserve was opened up but that only slowed for a few weeks the inevitable downfall of the US. Petrol was soon at unheard of prices hovering at 25 dollars a gallon. Just in time grocery deliveries stopped. The inner cities collapsed into huge dangerous gang controlled cesspools. Money could not buy anything when there was nothing on the shelves to buy. The inner city residents attempted to migrate to the country side to take some of those farmers’ cow steaks and pick them groceries off the trees and ground plants which produced them. That did not happen. The electric grid failed because the people servicing the grid were told they would not get paid. They walked off the job. This resulted in gas station pumps to quit working. The millions and millions of inner city residents could not go far without any fuel and 2 or 300 miles were too far to walk. The last thing to fail was natural gas that was pumped using natural gas generators. When the workers at the big dams found out they would not get paid anymore the generators were shut down and the workers walked off the job. Coal which powered 50 to 60% of the nation’s power plants sat in the coal cars because the diesel trains had no fuel, no train operators and no place to deliver the coal that had people working. The government tried to keep the nuclear power plants operating but the people could not get food with their worthless dollars and the plants one by one shut down. This did not happen over night. The total time it took for the collapse was about 85 days which resulted in an estimated 175 million people dying from lack of food to being killed by people searching for food and critical care patients died when the hospital generators quit from lack of fuel. More would freeze to death in the oncoming winter.

There were communities that would keep on for many months but the US ran on grid power electricity that used coal and fuel. When that was gone those communities dimmed down to a dull glow. The survivalists were huddled down and grinning in their shelters protecting their meager supplies and muttering to themselves I told you so.

Russia was the first major country to experience this engineered strain of super smallpox. They blamed and fired nukes on China and a huge nuclear exchange resulted.

The world was not a nice place to live in October.

The Clark family never left the area they lived in after the college shut down June the 28th. They were as well prepared as any of those huddled down survivalists and they were grey people in that no one knew about the redesigned basement which had been turned into a bomb shelter. Nor did anyone know about the huge amount of stored short and long term food they had. Clark’s dad closed and boarded the windows on his pottery shop. He knew what was coming and made a decision to only help the neighbor’s kids if he was asked. He and Clark had visited each and every neighbor a year and a half ago hinting to store long term food for the coming collapse. They were mostly laughed at by 4 childless older families but 3 families with children got on the bandwagon and actually stored a year or more of food. They had even started fairly large gardens.

July 30th Sophia and Clark killed 2 men trying to climb over the garden fence by the chicken coop. Sophia shot one of the men in the eye with the suppressed 22 and Clark killed the other with 2 throwing knives in the throat. Clark noticed they had rubber gloves on to keep from getting the low level shock the fence batteries were putting out. The 2 men were 2 of the childless couple neighbors. They were taken to the 10 or more foot deep hole the turkey parts were dumped in by the firing range. Clark and his dad put a half bag of lime on them and covered them with 2 feet of dirt and rocks. 2 days later the 2 women moved out taking a lot of stuff in their Cadillac’s. Those 2 men were never mentioned again in the Clark household.

The beer joint and the drug store that sold hamburgers were closed 2 or 3 days after Clark helped his dad board up the pottery shop. Clark talked to the beer joint owner while he was boarding his place up. The man said bad times are here now and it will get worse. He and the elderly couple that ran the drug store did not live in the hollow. The construction equipment owner that had all his heavy equipment parked in a concertinaed, chain link area stopped by and put several big pad locks and heavy chains on the entry gate.

12.

Clark and his dad got in touch with the remaining families which were the halfway prepared 3 families with children, the 2 worthless not prepared childless couples, the 2 boys and their parents. They found out the 2 worthless couples had kin folk in the city 70 miles away and were going to stay with them as soon as they got a permit to travel. I forgot to mention martial law had been implemented but it was not too effective as most of the police officers had walked off the job for non-payment of wages and lack of petrol to run the patrol cars. The National Guard could not operate because the governor refused to release the small amount of fuel that was stored for emergencies. The situation for the surviving people was bad and getting more hopeless not only for WV but the entire continental USA and the world.

Clark’s dad knew the boys and their parents could survive anything short of germ warfare and a close by nuclear detonation. They had more chickens then he but theirs were free range the 4 usually shot any animal that had chicken on its mind for food and they rarely lost any. They canned, dried and smoked everything and from what Clark had seen in their pole barn they had enough full mason jars to feed a small town and several gross of empty cleaned jars ready to be filled. They had several gardens on the hill side and the 4 of them were constantly working each section so Clark and his dad were not worrying about them surviving the bad times that were here now. He knew the dad had been slightly hurt in the coal mines and was drawing a fairly good check and that is where the salt, Morton sugar cure, spices and specialty supply items came from. The boy’s mom was a fair to middlin herb nurse. There were 8 bee hives in between 2 of the gardens and honey was their sweetener. The boys as far as Clark ever found out had been stuck in the 8th grade until they turned 16 when they were allowed to quit school. Clark’s dad told the 3 remaining families to scrounge up material to build themselves some chicken coops and when spring came he would furnish them some 2 month old chicks that could free range in their garden. He told them he only had enough chicken feed to take care of half the chickens he had now and would soon run out which was a lie. He told them he was going to try and start a worm farm to feed them but that would take a long time. He had plans to trap some wild rabbits or hopefully find some tame ones and let the rabbit pellets drop onto a worm bed but that was several months from now. They could access the river for fish and knew where several stocked fish ponds were in addition to that several of the close by mountain streams had been stocked with trout and a goodly amount were getting large enough to reproduce.

The US military were told to gather the critical equipment, food and weapons and consolidate at defendable large military bases. These bases were locked down and no civilians were allowed on. Those instructions had come down the chain of command. The last instructions were to wait until the country stabilizes before you attempt to help. The Navy had been told to resupply the submarines and 1 carrier on each coast as long as supplies were available but the nuclear submarines had priority and 2 years worth of supplies were to be set back for the nuclear submarines.

Hawaii knew it was on its own with no resupply coming in. They knew they could not eat coffee so 95% of the high priced Kona coffee plants were removed and edible vegetables took their place. The riots in the cities killed off 75% of the bad guy’s and welfare leeches and that left the remainder being able to be controlled by the still working local police. But Hawaii was in for some devastating days ahead. One of the CIA agents in Israel had been exposed to the super smallpox strain and he had flown back to the US the day after the attack on a military plane that had 60 troops on it. He continued to get hops with troop planes heading west until he got to Travis AFB in CA where he caught another military hop that was going to the Far East with 165 troops but stopped in Hawaii. He had been issued a set of military travel orders authorizing him permission to travel on military troop transports. Things were about to get really bad for everyone all over the world in just a short few weeks.

The 1st of August Bertram one of the neighbors asked Clark if he had short wave communication available; Clark’s dad had a Hallicrafter tube radio with all of the bands on it but since they were down in between 2000 foot mountains it did not receive too good. Sophia heard Bertram and told Clark I bought 2500 feet of cable just for that purpose, a neat transmitter receiver Model ICOM 7000; I bought that huge stretch out antenna that is about 235 feet long to pick up anywhere world and I downloaded the instructions on how to make a JPole 2 to 6 meter antenna out of some copper pipe and six 2 meter portable rechargeable battery powered radios.

Bertram said be a pretty big job to get that antenna and wire on top of the mountain. Clark’s dad said maybe not with 6 of us doing it we can cut a path straight up my side of the mountain and run the wire while we are making a somewhat slightly curved path. Clark said the only problem I can see with that is we would have to cut the large trees down about 30 feet on each side of the path in case one of them got hit by lightening or fell over in a windstorm onto the antenna wire. They got the other families involved since the 2 childless couples had pulled out with out travel permits and took their chance on not getting stopped. The 2 childless couples were never heard from again. It took 5 of the men and the 2 boys 9 days using 7 different chainsaws and a 4 wheeler to get the cable and antenna wire strung up. No one had asked Clark or his dad where they were going to get the electricity to power this equipment. Clark seemed to think his family was not as grey or low profile as they thought they were.

Clark, Sophia and his dad talked about passing the shortwave radio information out. Sophia came up with the simple solution. Using an inverter from the 2 fence electrification batteries they parked Clark’s VW by the fence and hooked the antenna and power supply to the radio and left Clark’s dad’s Hallicrafter tube radio in the car for any one to listen to. They had to use a splitter and snake another radio antenna wire into the shelter for the high dollar ICOM receiver transmitter radio which had an antenna tuner beside of it.

November came and word of the smallpox and various other incurable diseases started getting talked about and it was all over the USA. This worried everyone in the hollow since it seemed to be only contact contagious. They decided to close the road off. But in order to do that they needed to use the heavy equipment in the fenced in enclosure. Bertram’s wife of all the hollow inhabitants was an extremely well qualified diesel repair mechanic. She told Clark one evening if there was fuel available in that heavy equipment she could get all the equipment running without keys. The boys with Clark’s bolt cutters cut the concertina wire and the chain link connectors holding the fence beside the gate they would wire it back together after they were done using the equipment. The 500 gallon tank in the enclosure had about 300 gallons of diesel in it. Instead of Clark and his dad treating the fuel in the tank after they were done they decided to fill and treat the fuel in the heavy equipment tanks so they could be used one more time to clear the roadway and be able to drive out of the hollow hopefully some day. The 12th of December there were 9 huge sandstone boulders with dirt behind them across the road. A person could walk up the creek by a boulder but there would be no vehicle traffic entering. A small sign was placed on the outer boulder that said simply WE ARE INFECTED AND IF WE ARE STILL ALIVE AND HOPEFULLY GET WELL WE WILL KILL ANY PERSON ENTERING OUR LIVING SPACE – THERE WILL BE NO WARNING SHOTS.

The middle of January the first big snowfall had came and melted away. The hollow inhabitants heard the massive detonation as it shook their houses. Clark’s dad said let’s go it sounds as if someone wants in. 2 minutes after they got outside they saw all the people were there and armed even the boys mom had a lever action rifle. The boys told everyone they were going to the mountains leading in and would shoot anyone they could see from behind them. Clark, Sophia and 2 of the men took the left mountain, Clark and his dad, 3 women and one man took the other mountain. The boy’s dad and his wife drifted off to the left by the roadway. Clark thought to himself you could always tell the crack of that 30-06 from a distance. He and the rest heard 7 spaced out shots. The boys showed up about 35 minutes later and told everyone they had killed 7 people. They also mentioned they could see their faces which were covered in small red dots. Clark’s dad asked if the roadway was opened. The boys said no. Everyone decided to leave the infected people where they were as they had heard on the shortwave the infectious diseases only lived 4 or 5 days in dead bodies. No one had any intentions of ever touching those bodies; the end loader would be used to dump them across the highway down a 60 foot drop off by the railroad tracks after the road was reopened

Late February Sophia came into the living room and told the family there will be survivors and they will be contagious carriers. Clark asked her how she figured that one out and she said in my sophomore year I audited (took a class without receiving credit) a class in infectious diseases because I was curious. Mrs. Clark asked how we would be able to tell these people. Sophia said they will have massive facial pitting and scarring. Clark just thought wow the human race is in serious trouble. He remembered those 2 phrases – TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it) and ELE (extinction level event).

After the chickens were passed on to the 3 couples with children things settled down for the following summer. There were no more attempts to enter the hollow and the inhabitants were getting along fine. Seeds had been saved from the previous summer and Clark gave each of the 3 families some Kennebec potato cuttings to plant. The Kennebec potatoes were native to this part of the country and produced extremely well. The boys had different types of potatoes and gladly shared. The Clark family was extremely well off in that they had power. They found out the 3 families across the road from the creek were using a lot of manpower to get water from the creek. A meeting was held and a 4 inch pipe was brought up to deliver water across the road or under the road to deliver water to the occupants on the opposite side of the creek. There were not enough pipes to do the job. They needed 16 more 10 foot sticks of pipe, fittings and some glue to do the job. They talked about this for a week before deciding to use bicycles to travel across the river bridge to the hardware store to retrieve the needed equipment.

The decision was made that 4 armed men on bicycles with one guard would be made. The bicycles were carried down through the creek opening and the 4 set off. The plan was 3 men could carry 3 pipes each with the fittings and the lone trailing guard would help them if they ran into trouble. Of course everyone would carry a long gun.

The trip was uneventful unless you consider a survivor running into the woods a hundred yards ahead of them on the way back an event. They had to break into the store for the glue and fittings and they found they could carry 4 schedule 40 plastic pipes easily on each bike; the trail guard bike also carried 4 pipes and was loaded down with what they thought were important items.

The road was quickly dug up and the pipe ran through the ditch. The committee had decided to put a faucet on the end of the raised pipe over the drainage ditch and this cut the travel down from 280 yards to 10 to 18 yards for the 3 couples with children. They had found out the boys and their parents had been drinking the water straight from the creek for the past 30 some years. All Sophia said was they have built up immunity from drinking that water all those years – I will drink the filtered water from the Big Berky’s. The 3 couples tried to drink the water straight from the faucet and ended up with mild diarrhea. They ended up boiling all drinking water or using some of their precious bleach to kill whatever was in the water causing them to get sick.

They had heard the broadcasts from the US military telling everyone to shoot any scar faced person who they eventually had found were contagious disease carriers. Sophia just said we will have to outlive them because every child they have dies within 24 hours of birth. They also heard the calls on all bands for the scar faced people to move south to warmer climates so they could defend themselves from the uninfected.

6 years and 3 children later Sophia and Clark made many scavenge trips to the cities. They shot 5 infected people from a distance. 99% of the infected had moved south to large enclaves which was a mistake on their part. The uninfected military troops bombed them mostly out of existence. That did not mean there were none left. The infected survivors went underground and hid till their life was over.

The uninfected in foreign countries did not have as much luck as their US counterparts they were all infected.

15 years later Sophia with her evil black rifle and Clark with his bolt action 30-06 luckily ambushed and shot and killed 7 old infected armed men and women riding horses down the interstate heading south.

The world population of uninfected people was about 400,000 most of them in the northern tier of the US.

It would take several decades to rebuild the United States basic infrastructure.

Clark, Sophia and their children lived happily ever after.

THE END

[Lbox88]

Clark Story #19 – Infected Crazy People

I wrote this one night just for fun


It was early October and the 17 year old boy could tell winter was fast approaching. The West Virginia mornings were crisp and the leaves were turning that orange yellow color. This morning the sky was dropping big raindrops and the temperature was in the low 40’s F. The forest was wet and if he was not careful while walking he would make a squishy sound when his boots sank into the rotting soaked leaves that covered this area. He squatted down under a large oak that still had most of its leaves and listened. He was well schooled in situational awareness or he would not be breathing air today. He had found a 2 brimmed camouflaged hat which he thought was so neat he kept it and had been wearing it for a year. It was handy right now as the rain dripped down onto the back of his wool shirt instead of running down his neck. The front brim kept the raindrops out of his eyes and on sunny days shielded them like a car visor. Hearing that squishy walking sound that he had been avoiding making he brought the 250 pound test Barnett cross bow up into the ready position. He did not yet unsnap the leather strap holding his 45 model 1911 in the holster. He carried a 45 because he never wanted to be under gunned again as far as stopping power went. The big slow travelling 230 grain partially jacketed hollow point lead slug would stop someone in their tracks if hit in the upper body or heck as far as that goes just about any hit anywhere within range would put an extreme hurt on any human.

It was one of the infected; the cross bow bolt hit the man in the temple and came out the other side. He watched the man slump straight downwards without making a sound except for the slight thud. He would have shot him in the heart but sometimes these people wore armor plate. They were getting smarter about hunting normal survivors in the woods.

4 years ago some type of fungal pandemic tore through the world killing a lot and infecting even more. The fungus destroyed what he called the good part of the brain? The infected were not Zombies they could converse in some type of guttural English language that they understood perfectly, even he could understand them if he listened carefully. They ate normal food but most of it was raw, had normal body waste functions and slept like a normal human. The only thing wrong with them was they wanted to kill any person not infected. Their motor skills were functional to a degree and some of them could use firearms but not very well. He had finally decided that their sense of smell had been elevated and they could smell a non infected person and this set them on a wild insane killing rage. He had smelled a just killed infected body many times and they had a faint odor of damp woodsy moss. He drug the man off into a deep ravine after he had cocked and put another bolt into the cross bow. He figured if there was one on this mountain side there would be more. He again heard that squishy sound and readied his bow. There were 2 of them sniffing the air. He would use the crossbow on the last trailing one and use his throwing hatchet on the front one. At 15 feet he was deadly with his hatchet and if he missed there was always the 45. He did not miss but decided he would have to move because of the blood on the leaves which would soon be washed away and the scent he was leaving. He drug those 2 bodies off and dumped them into the deep ravine he had dumped the other infected one. Before he got back to the oak tree it started raining really hard so he decided to stay partially protected from the down pour under the leafy oak tree.

Part 2.

The normal’s had a slight advantage over the infected sick ones when it became necessary to tell who was who. The infected when they smelled a normal could not stop their eyes from opening wide and looking around. That split second wide eyed look gave the normal’s time to escape or attack. The boy wondered if those scent blocking clothes he had read about in that huge stack of hunting and fishing magazines he had read would mask his smell from the infected. The log cabin he had found was secluded and well off the beaten path. His 2 former companions he had lived with for 4 years had recently been killed while scavenging in the city leaving him alone. He wondered if he didn’t kill any more of the infected within 7 or 8 miles of the cabin if they would quit searching for him. He would think about that some more tomorrow after his clothes dried and he had a good night sleep. Whoever had built this cabin many years ago had built a 4 foot by 4 foot wide by 9 foot high stone room which was almost airtight. A candle set on the floor and left burning all night would dry any wet clothes left hanging inside and he had made good use of that room many times. There was a root cellar close to a small covered spring just outside the front door and the 2 hole outhouse was to the left of the stone lined root cellar. He and his 2 companions had had gardens during the summer months and the left over’s were put in the root cellar. He had learned so much from those 2 fellows and he really missed them. One had spent 2 tours in a combat zone and the other one was a 23 year old Eagle Scout who had also been the Boy Scout Leader of a small troop in the next town over from where young Clark had grown up.

2 hours later Clark decided to head home he did not think there were any more infected searchers out in this miserable weather. He double barred the heavy cabin door which was the only way in other then the escape hatch they had cut out of the roof near the back edge of the cabin. He hung his clothes in the small stone lined room and lit a candle. He had already filled the 5 gallon cans and buckets with water before he left. He took a sponge bath and ate some warmed up potatoes, a few carrots and a piece of deer jerky. He knew it would soon be time to make a surreptitious scavenging trip to replenish his salt and sugar. He went through his supplies after supper and added a few other things he did not currently need but always used. He could carry 40 pounds fairly easy but it would slow him down if he had to run so he just gritted his teeth and said I will make 3 trips. He was going to Cabelas to get some of those scent blocking clothes first. He had decided he would take another big chance and look for suppressed rifles and pistols at some of the gun stores. All this was in addition to getting his eating supplies. He dreaded the 10 mile hike but he had to do it to survive. It was easy when the 3 of them went scavenging, each of them was responsible for one item but now he had to do it alone. Maybe he would find another normal some day to help out. There were 2 caches of break in tools close to the city and they always carried some type of tool when entering the city. One of their long term projects was torching open an 8 foot by 8 foot gun store vault. They needed one more bottle of oxygen and acetylene to cut into the vault. He put that on his list to look for 20 or so pound bottles of the aforementioned and maybe someday he would get into the safe. They had broken into the gun store through the roof so as not to let the infected see a broken door leading into the building. He only needed some suppressed weapons; he had plenty of long and medium distance rifles, pistols and ammunition. Looking at his supply of arrows and bolts he came to the conclusion he would be very old before he shot up what he had here and in caches throughout the mountains.

Part 3.

It was still raining heavy the next morning so he decided to take a day of rest. 3 hours later the day of rest was over he could not set still and read those old hunting magazines again. He wrote that on his list new magazines, (they would be new to him even if they were 4 years old), and maybe some library books.

He learned by watching how the other 2 handled themselves in the woods and 2 or 3 nights a week one or the other would have some intensive lectures on survival. The Army man taught small unit tactics and Sniper training to the other 2. The Scout Master had a photographic memory and taught trapping, knots, animal skinning and forest edibles. They were getting to be a well rounded 3 man team. He would never know they were trapped and surrounded by 2 or 300 of the infected and could not shoot their way out and were eventually torn to pieces.

Clark slipped through the woods like a wraith constantly listening and watching for any sign of danger. He opened the break in tool cache and took a crowbar and a 24 inch bolt cutter. Cabelas was locked up tight so he went to the roof and found a steel door leading inside. The crow bar was barely adequate to break in and he debated going back to the cache for a 6 foot wrecking bar but he persevered and got the door open. When the door finally opened it made a screeching sound because the hinges were rusted.

He did not go in he went to each corner of the building and watched for 10 minutes to see if he was going to be attacked. Nothing moved in his sight range so he took the small flashlight with a red lens and entered the place. He looked for a small can of gun oil because he was going to oil those hinges when he left. He saw the place was fully stocked with ammunition and he put a box of 45 caliber 230 grain hollow points in his back pack. He found the clothes that were supposed to lock in your scent and slowly filled his back pack with his size. He found the magazine rack and put 15 new magazines on top of his clothes. He stumbled over some game carts and light bulbs immediately flashed in his brain. He thought I can carry 150 pounds of supplies with one of these. He immediately carried one to the roof. He surely was not going to use it in the city so he carried it to the tool cache and left it with his already acquired possessions. The magazines were placed in a garbage bag to keep them dry.

He oiled the hinges on the door on his next exit and slowly worked the door until it was silent. He took a chance and knocked the frame back over the lock making the door appear locked but could now be easily opened with a screw driver.

His next stop was a Mom and Pop feed store that sold items in bulk, salt and sugar were 2 of those items. 2 more trips to his game cart and he had most of what he came for.

Snipping the padlock on a machine repair shop he looked for the oxygen and acetylene bottles. He was in luck he found two 20 pound bottles of each. He made 2 trips to the roof of the gun store and left the bottles just inside the door out of the weather the torches and hose were already in the building.

He replaced the cut pad lock on the machine shop with one that had been weathered and more importantly he had the keys to the padlock. He made a note to which padlock those keys were for and put them in a baggie in the cache with the legible side out to save time looking through all the keys already there. Most items that would be gnawed on by mice were put in regular fruit cake tins to eliminate losing keys or instructions.

It was still raining cows, dogs and cats when he took the partially loaded game cart towards the cabin. He never let up on his security of stopping, looking and listening. It paid off in the next half mile. He heard that guttural talk and immediately eased off the path into the woods. He was going to have to kill these infected if there were not too many because at daylight if the rain had not washed away the tracks they would be visible. There were 2 of them. He used the cross bow and killed the talkative one first and then the throwing hatchet buried itself about 4 inches into the 2nd ones head. Dragging them about 15 feet off the trail he pushed them over a small cliff where they bounced down tearing through the brush as if an elephant were on a rampage. He sat quietly for 10 minutes before moving on.

Part 4.

It seemed to rain harder the closer he got to the log cabin. He stopped and watched the place for 5 minutes before dragging/pushing the cart into the building. He took a chance and walked back 2 miles using his flashlight sparingly looking for the fat tire tracks. Surprisingly the rotten soaked leaves had bounced back and it would take an expert tracker to even realize something had travelled this trail. It was 430 am before he had dried himself off, hung his clothes to dry and lay down for a long rest. He woke at noon feeling refreshed after such a hard nights work but that was because he got his supplies and new reading material which he was going to read while it was daylight. He read 3 of the magazines front to back for the next few hours and then decided to put his supplies away.

Reading the directions on the new scent free clothes he decided he would carry them with him in a plastic bag and put them on when he got to one of the hidden caches near the city. He ate one of the breakfast MRE’s he had picked up in Cabelas and decided it was not to bad. He ran over to his notebook and made a note to get more of that type meal.

He did rest the rest of the day and made plans to make another night time entry into the city tomorrow without the game cart. He reasoned if something fortuitous fell into his hands he could always go to Cabella’s and get another cart. His plan was to break into that vault and hopefully find some suppressed weaponry. Hopefully tomorrow the sun would shine and he could use the two 200 watt solar panels to charge the rechargeable batteries for his flashlights and head band lights. The Oregon Scientific wireless solar powered weather station was indicating the batteries were due to be recharged also. The Army man knew quite a bit about solar panels, inverters and charge controllers and had brought 10 or more empty of acid 12 volt solar batteries, wire, connectors and the acid which was stored in the pole barn just waiting to be hooked up. Clark knew they were just waiting someday when they would make the cabin light proof and they would put up a few screw in fluorescents to read by. He knew winter was fast approaching so he made a note to take care of his light problem, but that would create another problem. He would have to have something more to read instead of going to bed when the sun went down. That reminded him to look at his candle supply; there was enough for a few months so he added candles to his list. He laid back and daydreamed now that he had a game cart he thought it would come in handy hauling supplies during a snow storm if he put skis on it.

He left at 4pm the next evening carrying his back pack, pistol, hatchet, cross bow and canteen. He got to the cache and put on his new scent free outfit with the balaclava. He really did not want to test it out this early before he could access the gun vault. He ran into 2 of the infected and walked by them mumbling. They did not even look at him – he did a few power fist pumps without screaming out loud it works. This meant that during the night he could roam the city at will. He finally came to his senses and said to himself that would be a really bad idea for a lot of reasons. The number one would be if he was captured and killed the infected ones may start going naked. He did not know nor did anyone else know whether the cold affected them like it would a normal. He kind of assumed it did because they were all dressed in winter clothes during the winter.

[Lbox88]

Part 5.

Carrying the oxygen and acetylene bottles down to where he could work on the safe he really felt edgy because there was no lookout. He decided to torch the safe for 5 minutes and run up to the roof to see if anyone came near the building – After the 10th trip he said a few dirty words and finished cutting into the safe. He made one more trip to see if anyone was near the building. There wasn’t so he pulled the big door down and it did make a racket so another trip to the roof to see if anyone heard it. He watched one of the infected about a block away sniffing the air like he had gotten a whiff of a normal. But soon he wandered off. Finally, he said to himself. He turned his headband LED light on and a flashlight. The place was chock full of rifles, pistols and ammunition. He began his search. He found ten 9mm colts with an extended suppressor on them. He did not really want a 9mm because one almost got him killed by a large enraged infected. 7 shots to the body and face before the man fell 2 feet in front of him and all that gunfire brought many more infected running towards his location. He did the smart thing and ran. Finding 5 Ruger suppressed Mark 111 22 pistols was a nice find. He could visualize himself with the 22 in his right hand making head shots and the 9mm in his left hand for some heavier firepower. He just chuckled at that thought. Alright he said to himself this is what I been looking for. The Army man had described his M4 many times and this was one of them and it had a suppressor on it. There were 2 more in the box with ammunition to burn. This is going to take 4 or more trips to the cache and I am going to have to get a cart.

He was in the shadows across the street from a grocery store when he saw that same infected sniffing like there was cocaine in the air. He knew there was a normal nearby probably in the grocery store. The infected was going into that hyper-active mode they do before sounding an alarm. He would have to take action immediately before this thing started yelling or screaming out guttural talk. He crossed the street and buried his hatchet in the mans head. He dragged him into the shadows by the grocery store and said in an almost loud voice – hurry up and open the door before you get us all killed. He heard the door unlatch and dragged the man in. Quickly he opened up an almost empty freezer that really smelled when he opened it and put him in it. He looked and saw a skinny girl maybe 14 and another skinny girl maybe 7 or 8. He said lets get near the back where we cannot be smelled or heard.

The girl said in a surprising mellow voice, my name is Sandra and that is my sister, Elsie. Can you help us Mr? We are having a hard time grabbing food now that the city population is increasing with those things. Clark said sure I can help you. Are you up to a 10 mile hike tonight because that is how far it is to my cabin. He told them to grab some food and follow him. They had entered the store through a risible bathroom window. He just did fit through it. They went straight to Cabellas, he asked them if they had clothes and boots for the coming winter. They both said we are not worried about winter we need food to just survive and hide from these things. Clark said that will change soon.

Here is what I want you to do, take this flashlight with the red lens and look for your size clothes over there in the ladies department. Get 2 pair of boots, 2 pair of long johns, some wool pants and some lined wool jackets, don’t forget the socks pajamas and house shoes, I have a cart so we will be able to carry it all – Now get over there and shop you each have 10 minutes. Grab 2 of those meals that say MRE on it and look for the breakfast meal it is a good one. We can come back another time for more food. I have something very important I have to do so just follow my instructions and I will take you to a safe place. He told them after they had finished shopping to go get some of the clothes he was wearing called scent blockers and if the ladies dept does not have them the men’s dept does and get all your outer clothes in camouflage color. They both looked at him and ran back to where they had gotten their clothes.

One hour later the girls both had stuffed backpacks and were carrying a small rucksack each. He also grabbed a couple of breakfast meals and high tailed it to his cache. He told both of them there was a tree stand 10 feet off the path and he wanted them to stay in it for about an hour until he got some weapons for all of them. The little one said my momma told me to not touch any guns. Clark set her straight real fast by telling her she can stay here because if she did not learn how to protect herself the infected would tear her apart. She just said in a real low voice OK.

Clark had to make 5 trips to the gun vault to get everything he had picked out. He passed several infected going to the vault and did not get a rise from them, but he did not push his luck carrying the weapons back to the cart. He took a 15 minute break with the girls before he started pushing the cart. The older girl Sandra tried it for a while and said if I eat better I can help you push or pull this thing anywhere. He then had to tell the girls no more talking and to stop whenever he did. They met no infected that night and both girls collapsed on the bunks without eating anything. Clark decided o let them sleep; their hunger would wake them up. He was right they slept 7 hours and he showed them the toilet and started on a big breakfast for them with the MRE’s they ate everything but decided they could wait a few hours for some more food.

Clark showed them everything including the escape hatch. He decided not to train them today he wanted them to eat until they were full. Another MRE and some rice put a stop to their hunger pains. They took another nap. While they were napping he installed the 3 fluorescent pull chain light fixtures and ran wire to the battery inverter. After they plugged up all the light leaks tonight they would have one of the world’s great inventions; bright reading electric light.

Part 6.

Clark knew he was going to have to make the library trip now because the 10 year old was sadly lacking in formal education. Her sister tried but she too had been cut off from formal education since she was 11. They had been living pretty well in a small town eating the available canned foods and dried goods in the empty houses until the infected arrived chasing them off and almost catching them. Since then they had been living like animals snatching food in empty houses and sleeping under 10 or more blankets in abandoned houses to keep warm during the winter months. They always managed to find just enough good canned and dry food to keep them alive. Clark was going to change that now unless 8 or 900 infected attacked him out here in the cabin. That was not likely but he kept it bubbling in his mind in case they had to evacuate. He now had 2 game carts and would have to take one back with him or he would run out at Cabellas and when he really needed one it would not be available. He taught them the basics on how to shoot the 22 pistol and now he could actually use live fire since the weapons were suppressed. The girls after 4 hours of target practice could keep a 10 round magazine on a human target shooting 2 handed. He told them practice would make them better.

He decided to leave them home tonight for his library excursion and some kid video learning games from Wal-Mart. He knew he could enter the store and make 3 or 4 trips gathering stuff up and hiding it in his jacket pockets. He decided 20 or so more rechargeable batteries would help during the evening after the sun went down. He was going to carry the suppressed 22 pistol during his travels in the city and head shots would be the only ones taken. Hopefully he would not need to use the pistol. He was right. The scent blocking clothes must have blocked enough of his scent that the infected could not pick up on what was left from his mostly uncovered face.

The cart was loaded down and the heaviest items were the library books. He had to kill 2 infected right close to where he killed the last 2 but he used his 9mm and 2 shots each to the chest around the heart region terminated that problem He knew he could shoot them in the heart because they had on tight fitting pullover jerseys. He threw them over the same cliff and listened again to what sounded like an elephant charging through the woods as the bodies rolled down through the brush.

2 more trips in the next 3 weeks and we will be set for the winter. He had asked the girl about her period and she said she had never had one. Clark thought she soon would after her body absorbed all the constant food nutrients and each of the girls started on a multiple vitamin/mineral supplement. He had learned from both the Army man and the Eagle Scout that unless you had a lot of money and a college degree in nutrition you could not eat a balanced diet every day of your life. That is why vitamins and minerals came onto the market to supplement those missing micro nutrients. He had brought back 8 packages of Maxi Pads just in case. Toilet paper was going to be an iffy thing because the hassle of carrying the bulky packages back was difficult. He knew the girls always had access to the paper as long as they were near the city. He just decided they would have to make a special trip and use both carts to make sure they did not run out. During classroom work Clark brought up the standard spiel about flossing and brushing 3 times a day or after every meal. He just said it is an awful way to die because you have an infected tooth and there is no dentist or anti biotic to stop the infection. He touched lightly on hygiene and said we will have an indoor shower as soon as I figure out how to drain the water to the outside. I have the pipe, the drill and the portable shower because my 2 deceased friends were always drawing out the plans on how to do it but it just seems we never had the time to install it.

Part 7.

That evening after another intense leaky light search he drilled the pipe drain hole to run the soapy water out to a sand and graveled area and installed the shower stall with the hanging shower bladder. This would be at least a 2 people operation because of carrying 4 gallons of water and climbing up on the 2 foot ladder to refill the bag. Elsie could not carry the water so it was up to Sandra and Clark to make sure everyone was clean. Elsie told them that she could carry one gallon of warm water at a time to fill the shower bag. They decided to try that in a day or 2. There were 51 gallons of Coleman fuel which would last many years at the rate they were using it. There were 3 repair kits for the stove and 2 new ones in storage. There were many chain saws, repair kits, sharpeners, chain lube and oil mix covered up under blue tarps under a pole barn they had erected just for this type of situation. They had even used rocks to make a footer to keep the pole barn floor off of the damp forest ground. Clark had not looked in a long while but he was pretty sure there were 15 or 20 five gallon jerry fuel cans with treated gasoline and if he remembered correctly some Coleman catalytic heaters.

Another plan they had come up with was to bring a good air tight stove to burn wood whenever the infected quit roaming around in the forest. He put that back on his list because the winters got down right cold up here at the mountains 1800 foot level. The 2nd year they were here the scoutmaster had to make a pair of snowshoes and make the trek to town to steal some quality ones along with some skis so they could travel around in the 4 foot deep snow. At least the 3 men did fix the roof by putting one of the 100 year aluminum roofs on so they would never have to worry about leaks.

6 weeks later he had noticed a marked improvement in the girl’s health, vocabulary and math skills. They could now keep all 10 rounds on a head size target from 25 feet shooting 2 handed.

The end of November the temperature following a huge snow storm plummeted down to the -15 degree F mark. Clark saw that they would again have to use the fire place which barely put out enough heat to keep the front of the fireplace warm but wood was free. He started one of the catalytic heaters and went into the woods with Sandra tagging along. He cut down 6 dead 4 inch or so diameter hardwood trees and cut them to fit the fireplace - the small diameter trees negated the need to split them. Elsie was asked to help drag the firewood back to the cabin. Clark eyeballed the stack and figured he had about 2 cords of wood which should last them at least a month or more. Before he started a fire in the stone fireplace he snow shoed out to where he could see the pristine trail. He made a circle in the woods on this side of the trail and saw nothing to disturb him. They decided as soon as it was dusk they would start a fire. That night after a bean and potato supper they thought they were in a 5 star hotel with electric lights and a wood burning fireplace, things were looking up.

Part 8.

Sandra looked at him the next evening and asked him why he did not have a transmitting short wave radio. He said we have a receiver but we never thought of having a transmitter. He wrote that on his list. She said can we listen to the radio. He said sure tomorrow morning if the sun is up we will charge some batteries to power it. Elsie said to Clark I want you to teach me how to tell time and I would like to have a watch like you wear. Clark had on a self winding watch that he and his 2 friends had absconded with from a jewelry store. They had taken about 25 watches and all of them were self winding and had a date indicator on them. The Army man said it was important to always know what the time and date was for setting up ambushes and changing the guard amongst many other reasons.

Looking at the weather forecaster he saw clouds with raindrops in the view screen – This indicated a snow storm since the temperature was 10 degrees F. He asked the girls if they wanted to ski into town and pick up some things. Of course they wanted to get out of the cabin. He made each girl carry one short ski for the game cart and he carried the clamps he had designed to put on the game carts. He had tested it out on the one he had here but he was feeling good and decided to use the one that was stored at the cache to bring what they picked up back. There should not be many people out in a snow storm and he wanted to load up on some DVD’s for the girls and some school supplies. Elsie was to carry one new portable DVD player out in her hand. He had watched the infected and sometimes they carried something around for no good reason and just dropped it later on. Clark already knew what size of rechargeable batteries would run the DVD he had in mind.

Toilet paper and a new shower bag were on the list. He told the girls to follow him into the wareroom in WalMart because they were going to leave by a back exit and carry the stuff out into the woods close to where the game cart was during the snow storm.

They almost made it out the back door in the ware room when 2 curious infected followed along to see what was going on. Sandra did not panic she shot the front follower twice in the forehead with her 22 and Clark shot the 2nd man in the head with his 9mm. They stood there for about 3 minutes and no one came to investigate the slight sounds the suppressed pistols had made so they were home free. Clark dragged each man out to about a hundred yards in the woods and dropped them. Clark thought the 2 guys would not be found till snow melt and he did not think they would be found then because he had dragged them into some dense cover. The 3 of them went back and carried their load back and skedaddled back to the cabin. Pulling the game cart on skis was not as easy as pulling it along on wheels. They all had snow shoes on to travel in the 3 foot deep snow and he guessed that may have made a difference. Elsie even dragged the cart about a hundred yards before her muscles played out on her. One good thing the snow was coming down heavy and their back trail was rapidly covered over. Since they had seen no tracks on the way in Clark let them sing Jingle Bells for a few minutes. They were a happy tired crew when they got to the cabin.

Clark and Sandra read the 2 books he had picked up on ham radio – one was – ham radio for dummies and the other was making simple antennas for ham radio. He looked at Sandra’s notes and saw they just about paralleled his on what to pick up at the radio shop about 19 miles away. They knew from reading they did not need a 50 or 100 foot tall antenna since they were already on top of an 1800 foot mountain. They talked about it for a bit and decided a bare copper wire or one of the dual wires about a hundred feet long would do fine receiving and broadcasting. That was their next planned project.

[Lbox88]

Part 9.

Thinking back on the infected he and his friends had killed. When they searched the dead bodies they always had a handful of candy, mostly tootsie rolls and hard covered candies like m&m’s. The 3 had talked about that for months and finally came to a consensus that it was for energy. They did not know that the infected people’s metabolism had slowed way down. This resulted in a longer life span for them and their body needed less nutrition to maintain itself. The sugar was an energy boost that kept them going without normal food for several days. In their food searches in Wal Mart Clark noticed the pop top cans of food were the 1st to mostly disappear. The next items were the cans that needed the tops taken off with a can opener. They would sometimes find those cans outside busted open with either a rock or a hammer. It appeared that some of them did not know how to use a can opener. The infected somehow got their act together in the spring of the 2nd year. Hordes of them were seen digging with all kinds of implements in the fields where they planted seeds from packages in the stores. Some of the infected appeared to be the leaders and handed out seeds. They were curious what was planted off by itself in another field but had to wait 6 or 8 weeks when the Scout man saw potato leaves coming up in that area.

Since it has been 4 years he had not seen any new babies. The young surviving infected had not seemed to grow much bigger or was growing really slow and they acted the same as the older ones.

You got sick and died; got sick recovered and became an infected or were immune from the infection. No one knew how many non-infected or infected were alive today. The fatality rate on the news before the world news went dark was 80% or more. There had been no attempt to find out how many non-infected were alive as far as Clark knew. Listening to the short wave radio may be a big deal he thought. It sure looked to Clark that there were more infected alive than non-infected,

Clark never understood why the stores that were locked up were never entered by the infected. Something must have turned a switch on in their brain telling them not to break into places unless there was a non-infected they could smell inside of a locked up building. The Wal Mart doors worked until the power went off and that allowed those recovering from the sickness that caused the infection access and they never stopped going in that place. The 3 guys had not seen another non-infected in the 35 mile round circle they stayed and traveled in.

Part 10.

During the winter and a few times in the summer and winter Clark and the 2 men saw smoke coming from some of the houses that had fireplaces or wood/coal stoves. They guessed the rest of them curled up under a ton of blankets and slept in their clothes. They watched some wander off never to return and some new infected come in. They had no idea where the ones that walked off went or where the new ones came from. The city had about 1500 infected living there. Clark knew the 3 of them had killed about 500 in the past 4 years but to them the population in the city looked like it remained fairly stable.

The next morning Clark asked Sandra if it bothered her shooting that man. She said it did for a while when I lay down to sleep but I really think of them as wild animals that have rabies so no it does not bother me anymore. That day when the snow stopped the temperature plunged to about 25 F below zero. The only warm place in the cabin was right in front of the fire. Elsie said 3 or 4 times it sure is cold in here. Clark knew it was cold when he went to get a drink of water from his glass on the table. It was starting to freeze at the top. He remembered back to the winters the scout and the army man talked about all the heat is going out the chimney and needing a pot belly or stand alone air tight stove with the pipe going up the chimney. They never did anything about it but throw another log in the fireplace and get into their -40 sleep bag.

He knew Cabela’s had tent stoves but he did not know much about them. He did know they were not heavy because he had run into the display one a time or 2. The infected had never been seen out this far in this deep of a snow fall or temperature this cold. He asked Sandra if she wanted to ski into town with him and help him bring one of those tent stoves back to the cabin. She said yes I will help but what about Elsie. She is going to stay here and keep the cabin warm. He told Elsie to come with him. He put the ladder up and opened the back roof escape hatch and eased it back down. He asked her to climb up and see if she could open it. She had no trouble opening the door. Next he put her scoped 10-22 rifle with the 50 round magazine by the ladder and told her to wear her Ruger 22 pistol and keep 6 ten round magazines in her pocket for her pistol and 1 extra 50 round magazine for the rifle. He told her we have been through this routine 100 times and you know what to do and where to shoot them. They cannot catch you if you have your snow shoes on and you can run 25 yards and turn around and shoot them in the head just like we trained. Your hooded jacket with your little survival pack is hanging on the ladder. You must not leave until they have almost broken the door down. So you wear your insulated boots inside all the time we are gone. Now we know nothing is going to happen but it is better to be prepared for a just in case. You will soon be 11 years old and if your sister and me get killed you should know how to take care of yourself. She had that scared look on her face but just said I can do it.

Part 11.

As Clark and Sandra were skiing towards the city Sandra said I think you scared her. Clark said I meant too. Things have changed and we live in a dangerous time. Don’t worry the infected cannot get to her 10 miles away through 4 feet of snow. I would be willing to bet they are hardly moving around in the city. He was right. But he did something different that Sandra would have never thought of. One mile from the cache on a slight down slope he told Sandra to ski in his tracks and stop when he told her. She stopped where he told her to and he skied 50 more feet and then carefully skied back to her in the same track. She watched him as he took a small pocket fisherman rod and reel out of his back pack that had a large treble hook on it. She did not see the ¾ inch rope about 8 feet off the trail hanging behind some bushes, small pine trees and a 4 or 5 foot ditch. He snagged the rope and pulled it to them. He told her to reach as high on the rope as she could and hold her feet up just enough to clear the brush and drop off when the rope stops. There was a clear spot on the other side of the small 2 foot tall pine trees and her skis fit the spot perfectly. He told her to put her snow shoes on and move out of the way. As they were on a game trail headed towards the city he told her the scout had found this trail and we have used it this way to confuse any of the infected from following us. So far it has worked.

They took their time in Cabela’s and got everything needed to put the stove together including 2 extra elbows and 2 more then needed 3 foot sections of pipe. He gathered up a bunch more stuff and had to make 3 trips to the cache area where the game cart with skis was put into use. The weather forecast display in the cabin called for more snow but he did not know when it was supposed to snow. Hopefully it would snow before they got back to eliminate the ski trail they would make. It started snowing right before they got to the spot they departed the main trail and it was coming down heavy enough to cover their tracks. Elsie heard them hollering her name she was a little slow opening the door because she was sound asleep. It was 2AM when Clark and Sandra hit the sack.

The next day the 3 of them put the stove and pipe together which did not take but 2 hours. Running the pipe up the chimney took the longest as Clark had to climb up on the roof and put the cap on the pipe sticking above the stone chimney.

There was a lot of smoke in the cabin when they started a small bark fire in the stove. It took about 5 minutes before the steel pipe chimney got warm enough to draw the smoke out. After that the heat in the cabin was 100% different then just using the fireplace. The stove warmed the place up to about 18 feet in all directions including the shower area which was really nice. In fact the 20 X 40 stone and log cabin was heated from end to end.

The next item he opened was a blister pack of 4 short range portable radios. He was going to plug the 2 chargers in and charge the batteries. These radios had the ear buds so they could communicate with each other without any infected close by hearing the transmission. The advertisement on the package said 22 mile range and he did not believe that for one minute. Line of sight from mountain top to mountain top 4 or 5 miles was tops he thought. In the woods he gave them about 500 yards of range. They would check the range on them in a few days as soon as the batteries were charged. He left the matching 4 pack in the blister pack for spares.

Part 12.

The Cabella’s flat top stove made a great cooking range. They could constantly keep water warm and did not need to use the Coleman stove any more till the weather got warm.

The radio store was 19 miles in the opposite direction of the city in a small town on the main highway. The last time Clark and his 2 friends had been there the place was infested with infected. They always by passed the place by circling deep in the woods on game trails whenever they made their circle.

Clark asked Elsie if she wanted to make a 19 mile hike and maybe sleep out in the woods over night. She just looked at him as if he had turned crazy. The snow on the mountain top was just about 5 feet deep and the temperature never went over 0 degrees F during the day in late December. He looked at Sandra and said I guess it is just me and you. That evening he drew the 2 ways to the radio store. They were going to ski most of the way and walk up the 2 mountains on their snow shoes. There was another way but it was really dangerous and that was straight down the highway. Sandra said there is no way they can run us down when we are on skis and they are trying to run through 4 or so feet of snow. He said we can do that if we do it after dark. But we really may have to hole up in an abandoned house or maybe even in a tent for some rest if anything happens or if we have to take the long way back.

He said you carry the 22 rifle and I will carry the M4 – she said no I want an M4 because I can kill those things 150 yards away instead of the 40 yards with the 22. It does not make any more noise then the 22 and I can carry six 20 round magazines. I can also carry my 22 pistol with 200 or so rounds. He looked at her knowing she was right because she had turned into a really fine shooter with all 3 weapons. She watched him put 18 rounds in a magazine and asked him why he did not put 20. He said I forgot to tell you what the Army man said about weak magazine spring stoppages. The spring in the magazine is not compressed all the way if there are only 18 rounds in it. She loaded her 6 M4 magazines the same way and only put 9 rounds in her 22 pistol magazines.

It was a shame the portable shortwave radio he brought in did not work. It may have been dropped or faulty from the factory.

They waited one more day to leave at 230AM because it did not get daylight till 730 or close to it and the trip on the highway would only take 4 or so hours.– Elsie got up and fixed them breakfast and a small plastic thermos of hot coffee to take with them.

Clark had taught Sandra how to ski the same way the Scout man taught him. Nothing fancy just how to go up and down hills and stop. A little practice and she picked it right up. They skied down 2 hills and put their snow shoes on to get up to the top of the others before skiing down to the highway. The highway had about 2 and a half feet of snow on it so they were good to go

Stopping at daylight just outside of town looking down at the radio store they saw no movement but 2 houses not far from the store had smoke coming from chimneys. With his binoculars Clark could see the radio store door was open and there were no tracks leading inside. He thought for a minute wondering if anyone slept in the building and said to himself no I don’t think so because the door would be closed to keep the wind out.

The back of the store had an 8 foot privacy fence around it and could be reached from the woods by snow shoeing 10 or so feet. He did not think anyone from the other houses nearby could see the back of the store. He just told Sandra lets go. They exited the woods and snow shoed to the back of the store. Clark had to use the 8 inch pry bar he had to break the hasp off the back gate. They entered the open back door as if they owned the place but with extreme caution and fingers close to the triggers on their weapons. The store was empty.

[Lbox88]

Part 13.

The store was empty of infected. Clark told Sandra to look for the antenna. He saw what he wanted was on display and on the shelf below the display was a new one in a box with all the contents. It was an ICOM 7000 transceiver. He knew he needed a power supply, an antenna tuner and a stand alone microphone with some connectors for DC use. He took the instruction book beside the display model and walked to the back door where he had good light. 10 minutes later he grabbed several connectors and went to help Sandra find a simple antenna. She had a 40 to 6 meter mobile antenna in her hand and just said we may need this because on 40 meters we can reach out and touch some distant people. They continued to go through the antenna selection. Ha, Sandra said here is one long wire 120 feet 16 gauge antenna already measured out, cut and has the Balun in the center. All we need is about 25 feet of RG8X coaxial cable to run in the cabin, some connectors and we can get outta here.

Clark did not think the weight was too bad and neither did Sandra. The back packs were slung onto their back and they headed out. They had spent about 2 hours in the store making sure they had everything on the instruction list and double checked with the list from the short wave antenna book list.

They snow shoed through the woods to the 1st down hill on the road. Clark decided to take a break and ski down the hill after a snack.

They had just had a snack and were getting ready to ski down the hill when Sandra said oh no. Clark looked the way she was looking back down the hill they had just come up.
Sandra counted them and Clark checked her count. 61 infected walking in a single line right in the snow shoe tracks. Sandra said do we run and Clark said not yet. He waited till they were 125 yards away according to the small range finder he had. He said Sandra I will shoot the first one you shoot the 2nd one all the way down the line. She grinned at him and said I bet you are glad I have the M4. He did not say anything because she was 100% right.

They had knocked 16 or so infected down before the ones following started to move out towards the woods on the side of the road. Clark hollered out you take the left and try to keep any of them from making it to the woods. About 3 magazines later all the followers were down. Clark said lets just set here for a while and see if any of them are wounded. 5 minutes later 3 of the downed infected started moving their arms and legs around. They shot the moving ones 3 more times each in the upper body and waited 5 more minutes. Clark said I will go down and shoot each one of them in the head with your 22 since we have plenty of 22 bullets.

30 minutes later they skied down the hill and walked up the next one. Finally they did not have to ski any more and took off into the woods on their former path on snow shoes.
Clark and Sandra did not know that they had killed every infected in that small community. Clark and Sandra were also worried about other infected picking up on their trail. They decided they would walk to an overlook area 3 times a day and check their back trail until the next snowfall.

They were tired and fell into their bunk for a long sleep. The next morning after Elsie came back from checking their back trail they put up the antenna and then hooked the radio up. Before they started scanning for radio signals Clark made the 800 yard hike out to the overlook area. There was nothing to be seen for over a mile on their back trail so he headed back to fire the radio up.

Part 14.

The radio crackled to life. Elsie was given the honor of pushing the up/down search switch to find active broadcasts.

Clark told Sandra to write down the frequency of the man who was talking on the radio. The gist of the conversation was how the infected were dying off in the southern part of the US where the temperature was warm. They talked about other things and as far as Sandra and company could figure out one of the fellows was in Georgia and the other in Kansas. Clark was reading the instructions on how to tune the antenna for broadcasting and finally figured it out. As soon as the men stopped talking Sandra said hello person in Georgia or Kansas she repeated it 2 more times. The fellow with the twangy Georgia voice answered back.

The conversation went on for 45 minutes when the Georgia man said he had some things to do and would get back with them at 3pm EST tomorrow.

Well, well Clark said it looks like this infected people period of time is coming to an end.

The Georgia man had told them the infected in the warm climates were dying out by the thousands. It appeared the fungus in the infected had mutated and killed the host. As soon as the host died the new mutated fungus poured out of every orifice in the body and lay dormant waiting for a new host to infect. Any uninfected person who came in contact with the dead bodies died in about 4 hours. That was as much as the Georgia man could find out from the surviving scientists. It appeared that cold weather slowed the mutated fungus from becoming active. But this would change as soon as it became warm in the northern climate. One thing he repeated over and over was not to come into contact with any dead infected for at least 3 weeks or longer.

Clark never found out that the smoke coming out of the house chimneys was for boiling vast amounts of potatoes with the skin on till they were almost cooked through. The infected each ate a cooked potato every day or every other day to maintain their energy level.

Elsie asked if this means that as soon as summer was over it would be safe to go into town again and not have to worry about being killed by the infected. Clark said that is what it sounds like but we will play it safe and keep away from any that are still moving around and especially ones who are dead.

No one alive really knew where the fungus came from it had been speculated the microscopic spores came from a mutated field of wheat in the northern USA but that was never proven. All anyone knew was it appeared infected the world then died out.

They constantly stayed on the radio that summer. Clark was the only one who scouted the towns out. About the middle of June he did not see any more infected moving around in the 2 towns. He never entered the towns deciding they had enough supplies and new garden produce to carry them through the summer. He noticed the field that potatoes were planted in had thousands of potato plants growing and the first week of June he saw no more workers tending the field. He knew they would have more potatoes then any normal human could eat. He just wrote in his book to dig up 10 pounds every time he went near the field. He could enter the field from the woods so he would not be in any danger if anyone started chasing him.

They found out that the non infected people were planning a get together at the state capitals or elsewhere in that particular state where most could intermingle in late September and middle May of the following year.

Sandra told Clark if he could get a working commode in the cabin she could wait till May of the following year to meet the survivors. He told her a commode was a heavy item. She said I know but maybe you can get one of those 4 wheelers we have seen in garages running and put a tow cart on it. That way we wouldn’t have to walk so much.

Clark did not know much about mechanics but he thought if he picked up some books mechanics for dummies like the one they had used shortwave for dummies he could do some reading and maybe figure out what to do. He was afraid to go in Wal Mart so he went to NAPA – Advance Auto and the library. He found about 10 books that would educate him a good bit so that is what he did most of July. He almost filled up a 120 page notebook on things he would have to do. By the 1st of August he had book learning but no practical experience.

He and Sandra knew the 1st thing they needed was a charged up battery – next was treated fuel - they had decided to drain the fuel out of the engine tanks and replace it with treated fuel before attempting to start any of the 4 wheelers they found in garages. They did not know how lucky they were because the 1st 4 wheeler they drained the gas out of and put new in started. The person who had parked this 4 wheeler had turned the gas pet cock valve off when he parked it and ran the gas in the carburetor and engine dry. This eliminated that varnish build up in the carb jets enabling the new treated gasoline to flow into the engine. The next 2 they found would not start. Clark had read about the varnish buildup and how hard it was to take the carb apart and clean the tiny holes the fuel flowed through. He was going to play around doing that this winter to see if he could get all of them a 4 wheeler or a trail bike running.

They now had a way to haul everything they needed out to the cabin.

The next project was plumbing for dummies and how to use a small pump to pump the water into the cabin to fill the commode and various other things that running water would be useful for. He got smart and ran the commode waste line straight into the outhouse hole. He did not think the 3 of them would fill it up for a long time if ever because they could see inside the hole the walls were just sandstone piled on top of each other so the water would eventually just leak out through the cracks in the rocks.

They became a family the next May when they rode 3 trail bikes to the state capital meeting 95 miles away. Elsie invited a cute boy she met to come visit for a couple of months.

Clark was thinking we will need a bigger place to live soon.

The End

[Lbox88]

Clark Story #20 - Anti-Biotic Immune MRSA

Good golley, smolley, googley and all kinds of words that did not mean anything flashed through young Clark’s mind. That girl on the stage could sing, and remembering an old phrase in a sci fi book by E.E. Doc Smith - She was built like a Thionite dream plus she was real easy on the eyes to look at –She sang the kind of music Clark liked. Her voice range was incredible and she never missed a word. He sang along with her to the tunes he knew under his breath. Telling himself I have to meet this girl. When she did a minnie dirty boogie as she closed her show down – Clark almost had a heart attack.

He pulled his notebook out and wrote a note. Since this was one of Clark’s frequent watering holes he knew most of the drink girls. He gave her a 5 dollar bill and said to Emily the drink girl if you deliver that note to the girl who just sang I will love you until you have great, great grand children. She smiled at him and said her name is Destiny Carotlo. She comes from Doc Holdren hollow and she just broke up with her boy friend, has no money and no place to stay. She walked in today and applied for a 2 night singing job – auditioned for it and got it. One more thing this is the 1st time she has ever been on a stage. Clark said and just how do you know so much about her. I live 3 doors down from her ex-boyfriend and I brought her here with her 2 suitcases. Clark smiled back at her and said forget the great, great grandchildren part of my bargain – if things go right I will marry you too. She walked off swishing her hips

By the time she came back Clark had chewed 3 fingernails off his left hand. Emily said she will be out in a minute and if she does not smile and sits down that means you are in - if she smiles and sits down forget about her. Clark watched her approach and then he began to wonder because she had a small grin but no full tooth smile. She sat down and said my name is Destiny. Clark just said I am going to Nashville with you because you are going to be the next great female country singer. She smiled then and said you think so. Clark said I know so and one more thing I have not decided yet whether to marry you before you become a big star or after – I am kind of leaning towards the before though. The main reason for the before is some of those big name country boy stars will steal a man’s woman just for spite. She started laughing and did not stop for 10 seconds. She said I am off after my 2nd singing set where are we going. Clark said to a nice place to eat and we can talk about our future. Clark noticed she did not have to force herself to swish when she walked away it was just a natural thing for her.

Clark was absolutely amazed at her 2nd performance – she covered the spectrum from the 50’s and 60’s rock and roll and the same period with classic country and then on up through the 90’s popular music. Of course the bar was full by then and there were some rowdy drunks around that the bouncers had to physically remove from trying to get on the stage.

About 5 minutes after she left the stage Emily came and told Clark she will meet you at the back door she does not want to come out in the bar. What kind of automobile are you driving – Clark said a red king cab diesel Dodge Dakota with stainless exhaust pipes behind the cab rising up from the bed. OK I will tell her and you can pick her and her suit cases up at the back door. Clark ran out of the club thinking she may change her mind or get picked up by someone else. Clark did not yet know it but Destiny was a one man woman.

Part 2.

After a huge midnight breakfast they talked for about 90 minutes and drank too much coffee. He told her I have a spare bedroom you can stay in till you get yourself organized. She said let’s go I am tired.

Arriving at the 24 X 48 comfortable log cabin Clark had bought from an old grizzled retired coal miner that had to be put in a nursing home due to health. He threw her a set of keys and said the bedroom door has a deadbolt lock on it,

The next morning Clark was up before Destiny and decided to have a light breakfast because he still felt full from that massive meal they had eaten last night. He put out some oats, peeled and quartered up 2 oranges, started the water to boil and readied the bread for toasting and buttering.

Knocking on her door about 930am he hollered out breakfast will be ready in 15 minutes. At about the 12 minute mark she came into the kitchen drying her hair with one of his Virginia Beach towels. She looked great and he noticed right off the bat she had that rare natural curly hair which he eventually learned she called get up and go hair.

After they had a cup of hot tea, the orange quarters and a big bowl of oats with cream and country buttered toast. She said show me around your place and we can talk some more.

It did not take Clark long to walk her around his mostly flat southern facing 5 acre mountainside, creek fed stock and fish pond, empty pig pen and shed, root cellar, small orchard with 3 trees of each fruit, generator room, berry patch, smoke house, well, garden, 3 sheds, pole barn, tractor, chicken coop, hickory and walnut trees on the adjacent property, barn, small solar system and where the septic, propane, gasoline and diesel tanks were buried. She said is that outhouse still active – he laughed and said no I just never got around to tearing it down and filling the hole in. He said I saved the best for last. She just followed him around the side of the hill up an overgrown path and she had a good laugh because over a 8 or 10 foot boarded up old mine tunnel leading into the mountainside a sign in bright international orange and burned in black letters said “Clark’s Empty Gold Mine”. He said I had nothing to do one Sunday so I made that sign up. She asked if there was any coal left and Clark told her the seam of coal is getting bigger towards the end of the mine but I would need a few quarter sticks of dynamite to blast it out of the sandstone – I imagine I could get quite a few tons if the seam is as thick as I think it is.

He finally confessed to her that the old coal miner he (and the bank) had bought the place from had installed all the stuff and done all the work except for the new varmint proof chicken coop, the long chain link electrified covered over run and the small solar system which he was going to expand as more funds became available.

Back at the cabin she asked him if he really thought she could sing. That was a simple yes answer. He told her I have a little money saved up and I am going to take you to Music City to see if you can find somebody with some new music and a record company.

Monday morning Destiny and Clark were walking around the outhouse when she fell on some rocks beside the outhouse he grabbed her but both of them fell against the outhouse against some rusty nails. He just said we have to go get a tetanus shot and she just said I agree since it has been 10 years or more since I had one.

Part 3.

__________________________________________________ _____________________

OK we are getting into real fiction now probably science fiction – I wrote these fictional science sections for pure reading entertainment – Before anyone starts screaming at me this cannot be – Most of the science parts are definitely not to be construed as fact, just fun reading – Keep it firmly in your reading mind this is FICTION and the author reserves the right to make things up – thank you __________________________________________________ ______________________

At the WVU medical research unit 2 graduate students were playing around with MRSA bacteria - One student was into gene splicing and wanted to see what would happen if a known harmless virus was attached to the bacteria. Since these were known pathogens and not on the danger list the students were not in a bacteriological containment area - Muhammed had just finished his procedure when his cell phone rang. It was his girl friend screaming their apartment was on fire. Muhammed ran out the lab door telling his friend I have an emergency please put my test tubes in the fridge. His friend said OK but he was in the middle of some delicate work himself and 30 minutes later he had forgotten about Muhammed’s instructions. The nutrient rich test tube Muhammed had put his experiment in did not have a lid on it because of the phone call. These ingredients had a slight chemical reaction and bubbled up out of the tube inundating the lab table top and drying out leaving no discernible trace. The virus due to the ingredients Muhammed had mixed would replicate in the test tube and on the counter top at an unbelievable rate. This would result in a world shattering event.

There were 40 some thousand students from all over the world including students from 41 US states and 177 US military officers who would graduate shortly attending WVU and the end term for the school year was in about 3 weeks.

The virus had entered the cell walls of the MRSA bacteria and due to the ingredients Muhammed had in the test tube things happened to that harmless virus that in the real world of biology would never have happened.

2 hours later the friend of Muhammed finally remembered to take care of the test tubes that Muhammed had been working on. After washing his hands from his job he laid a new pair of rubber gloves on the counter where the spill had occurred and put them on. He put a lid on the test tubes and stuck them in the fridge. He did do something right he dropped the infected gloves in a bacteriological disposal unit. He would be patient Zero. But no one on this earth would ever know that.

Clark and Destiny piddled around at his place and got to know each other extremely well.
4 days later he told her I have to take a part to a machine shop for a repair and it is about a 2 and a half hour drive. She asked when do we leave. He said bright and early tomorrow morning. The next morning they just had coffee and decided to eat at an IHOP in Morgantown where he had to take the machinery. They sat down in a booth recently vacated by 3 WVU students had a nice breakfast and dropped the machinery off at the machine shop.

[Lbox88]

Part 4.

They arrived back at the log cabin and continued to make calls to recording studios in Nashville. Clark began to see it was not as easy as he thought it was going to be to get Destiny an audition. He remembered a year ago when he was trying to find out the name of an old song that Whisperin Bill Anderson had sang – It drove him crazy so he looked up billanderson.com and saw the man answered all the comments that were sent to his website so he asked and the next day Bill Anderson answered and he had the name of the song and where he could buy it. Clark downloaded the song and thanked Mr. Anderson.

He thought it cannot be this easy – he fired off the information to the website and the next day he got an answer. Mr. Anderson said he always loved to hear new talent and gave him an address and a contact telephone number and a date to show up. She just looked at him and said is he the old man that had all them hits in the 50’s/60’s and I think one of the monster hits was a song named “Still”. He told her yes that is that man and he just may be your ticket to stardom. He looked at her and said please do not call him an old man if and when we get to see him – She laughed and jabbed him in the belly and called him silly.

The appointment was 15 days from today so Clark had time to get his cousin to drive his coal truck for him after he got the part back from the machine shop in Morgantown to fix his truck engine.

She said what should I wear – He wanted to say Nothing but bit his tongue – He finally said girl Levi jeans, a slightly dull red not to tight shirt with a few shiny starry sequins and black glossy tennis shoes. She said you have got to be kidding me – He said no unless you want to wear a dress and low or high heel shoes. She said let me think about this for a while. He said remember while you are thinking about what I said that he is primarily an old country singer and he grew up wearing Levis’. He thought to himself I better go look him, his songs and his costume stage wear up on the internet.

Destiny still had not made her mind up on what to wear. Clark had researched Bill Anderson and was downloading his songs. He asked her how many songs she knew she said I don’t know if I ever heard it sung on the radio or TV I can sing it. She laughed and said I cannot sing those way low bass songs them guys sing that low but I can sing them and I cannot sing opera. He asked her about musical instruments – She said I am a fair violin player, a pretty good pianist and an excellent picking and strumming guitarist. Clark’s mind stopped when he remembered she said if she had ever heard a song once she could sing it. He vaguely heard what she said after that and for once he was totally stunned. She had total music memory recall. She asked him if he was alright because he had been staring at her with his mouth open for about 30 seconds.

Finally his brain kicked back in gear and he told her what he had been thinking. She said all my family is like that. I guess we got it from Daddy because he started us all out singing as soon as we could talk. We all had little guitars and as soon as he thought we would not fall off the piano stool he started us on the piano. My Momma was the violinist and she taught all of us how to play. I guess we were about 6 or so when we were taught how to read sheet music. And that is how I was brought up. My Daddy worked in the coal mines and our Momma homeschooled us.

Clark just thought to himself she is truly a real diamond in the rough and he hoped she would stay with him after she became a big star.

Part 5.

Patient 0 walked down a hallway full of students his hands and clothes shedding virus into the air by the millions. It only took one of these special virus to infect a human. He stopped at the cafeteria and got a coca cola depositing more virus in the air and on the ice dispensing machine. The evening student meal would be served in about 30 minutes. He made one more stop at the teaching dentistry office to see if his instructor friend was done for the day. Virus was left in the teaching dental area. His friend was not ready to leave so he stopped at Wal-Mart and then a major interstate highway gas station for fuel before heading home.

This virus was similar to Aids in one aspect it took about 12 or so months before it would get a foot hold in the human body and that would result in a slow, long agonizing death for the infected.

During the next 3 weeks 383 different students entered the laboratory where the countertop was reeking with trillions upon untold trillions of virus. 91 of those students were foreign exchange students and they and the 377 US military officers from 3 branches of the service and the rest of the college students would take their suitcase of clothes loaded with virus to their final destination.

Insidious would eventually be the name of this virus. It usually settled in the lungs and replicated itself but it did not yet do any damage some of the replicated virus was expelled during breathing infecting anyone that breathed in the virus. Some long ago imprinted memory told it after 12 or so months it was time to annihilate its host.

________________________________________
Part 6.

Clark and Destiny arrived in Nashville at the appointed time. After showing their email copy to the lady they were directed to studio 4 – There stood the old man in all his glory he had on Levis’ and a Levis jacket. Clark did not even look at Destiny because she had on everything he told her to wear except the dull red T-shirt – It was pink. She had just told him it is more girly looking. He couldn’t argue with that.

Mr. Anderson just said let’s get right to it. I have about 15 songs I have written in the last 6 months and I need a new girl voice sound for them. I also have some I have written over the past 40 years that have not seen the light of day. He said I will sing it the way I want you to sing it and then we will play some music and turn you loose. Clark thought one thing this guy is all business. Mr. Anderson asked her if she was nervous and she said no because I am fixin to do something I like to do. He smiled at her. Clark eased out of the room and watched through the glass.

About an hour later they came out of the room and Mr. Anderson had his arm on her shoulder. As soon as they were near Clark he said you did an outstanding job on my music and you are what I am looking for in a new artist. He said to both of them this lady has too much talent for me to turn her loose anywhere else. I know 3 or 4 honest lawyers who will do up a good contract for you with my corporation. You go see one of them and tell them what I said. Next you come back with your contract and see these people. Do not let them change one word in your contract and you can tell them I said so.

Destiny was so excited that she kind of squealed whenever she thought she was going to be a big time singer. The lawyer said I have standard contracts and super star contracts I am going to fudge a little bit and put you in between that status. And one more thing I am only going to make this contract for 12 months just in case you hit the big time and then we can renegotiate your contract. Clark just asked him what kind of money Destiny would be making. The lawyer grinned and said 14000 for the 1st month 26000 for the 2nd month and 38000 the third month plus a percentage of the concert tour income after that. Clark sat down quickly – Destiny fell down in his lap. She kissed him and said you really did do it. He said no you did it I just drove you here. She said are you going to move here with me in my apartment and go on tour with me. He said if that’s what you want you got it Clark was no fool he would try to stay within speaking distance of her forever. Clark and Destiny had no idea how fast things would move after the contract was back on Mr. Anderson’s desk.

The next 5 days Destiny sang in the recording studio and made 2 albums. Mr. Anderson said I am sending 4 single songs out to a few hundred of my friendly radio stations and you will be on the Grand Old Opry stage next Saturday night singing 2 of those new songs as a new country singer. He said take the next week off because after the Grand Old Opry Show you will go on tour with these 5 bands and you will not get to take a breath until you get back. It will be all work and traveling after next week and I just know the public is gonna love ya. See the wardrobe department to get gussied up for the Opry and the concert tour.

Part 7.

Clark and Destiny left their heads all aspin. She said are we going to stay in that motel. He said for a day or 2 let’s go back in and ask that secretary that knows everything where you can rent a cheap apartment in a good safe neighborhood because it does not look like you will be here long enough to really set up housekeeping. We will put the apartment in my name because if you become a big star you do not want rabid male fans trying to tear your door down. If that happens I guess we will have to move into a gated community.

Mr. Anderson did still have some fine music writing left in him. Those 2 songs she sang at the Opry moved up to the #1 and #3 position on the country charts in about 7 weeks. She became an overnight success like that 13 or 14 year old girl that had the mega blockbuster hit “Blue” several years back.

3 and a half months of concert touring and they were back at the Anderson recording studio. Destiny sang in the studio for 12 days where she made 4 more albums – Some of the music was written by Mr. Anderson and some by up and coming writers. He told her what new songs she could sing on tour to coincide with the release of an album every 3 months while she was smoking hot and in great demand. Clark and Destiny finally figured it out that Mr. Anderson was her manager but he did not micro manage. He just gave her her marching orders and what to sing at each concert. He told her to please not deviate from his schedule because the musicians all knew what everyone was doing and they did not want to play the wrong music. If they wanted to do a jam session or encores it was OK to do it at the end of the show.

Destiny’s album sales took off during the 4th month and the CD stamping plant had a hard time keeping up with the demand. The huge sales were a tiny part due to Mr. Anderson and Destiny having a little pow wow about her early life and small tid bits of her life story were put inside each album for her growing number of fans.

The ending of the 2nd tour was about the same as the 1st the only difference was there was only one album recorded. Clark and destiny had 15 days off and they immediately retreated to Clark’s cabin. They talked about marriage and Clark told her he would marry her tomorrow but it would be more advantageous to her career if she waited till the end of the 2 more 3 month tours. He said I hate to ask this Destiny but I am not making enough money from letting my cousin drive my truck to make my mortgage payments. She asked how much money do I have – he said I don’t know because I decided a long time ago not to get involved with your finances. I did not want you to think I was chasing you for your money. She laughed and said if it was not for you I would not have any money. I want to pay the mortgage off on the farm and I want you to sign a note giving me half the farm so I will always have a paid off place to stay. He grinned at her and said you can have it all if you want. She said no a husband and wife are supposed to share things equally. He hugged her and they cooked up some biscuits and meat gravy for supper.

The next morning she told him I have a 2nd cousin who married our 4th cousin. The other kin folk do not want them living around them anymore because of the stigma attached to in-breeding. Clark thought the cousins were too far removed for in-breeding to be a factor. Anyway she said they have a nice 5th wheel trailer and I want to move them here to take care of the place while we are on tour. He said that will be fine they can hook into the septic system, water and electric since the hook-up will be really easy. She said there are a few more things I want to do if you approve it. He said anything you want to do is fine with me. She grinned at that. We always had fresh eggs and fresh cow milk. I want to buy 3 or 4 of those small breed cows and have them bred at different times to always insure we have milk and I want a dehorned small bull kept around to keep the breed going. He said I don’t have enough pasture to keep that many cows. She said you will because I want to buy those 60 acres that is running next to your farm and have it strictly for pasture and if I can swing it I want to buy the property with the hardwood and nut trees on the other side. He said that may cost a pretty penny if anyone knew it was you wanting to buy it. She said I ain’t buyin it you are.

[Lbox88]

Part 8.

Clark stayed behind when destiny left for the 3rd tour he would catch up with her after the property purchases were made and her 2 cousins were settled in. He used his new bank issued debit card and for big money purchases he used the new checks with just his name on them that came in the mail about 8 days after the account was set up. He really did not know how much money Destiny had until she called him and told him the CD album sales had almost made her a millionaire and money was still coming in faster then she could keep track of it so it was OK for him to spend up to 400,000 dollars if he needed it. He did not need but half that to buy the 2 properties. Virgil and Teena, Destiny’s cousins knew more about farming, livestock and poultry then Clark ever would so they were designated to pick out that segment of the farm animals and poultry. He did buy 23,000 dollars worth of solar panels and fork lift batteries. He figured that would be enough to take care of the farm if the power failed. Clark was well aware of the life time nickel iron batteries and had drooled over them when he was researching his initial solar system. The 1200 dollar price tag for each battery had eliminated those thoughts of buying that type of battery quickly. He thought if destiny made a whole bunch of money they could buy 8 or 10 of the 305 amp hour batteries. He would talk to her about that at the end of her 4th concert tour.

Clark asked Destiny what Teena and Virgil were doing for walking around money. She said I forgot to tell you I have been sending each of them175 dollars a week for taking care of the place for us. They have a limited debit card and if they need money deposited to that account I transfer funds to it. That is how they bought the tractor with implements, livestock, chickens, walk-in cooler and animal feed. Virgil asked me about a 5 or 6000 dollar automatic milker. He said he knew where a practically new one was just sitting. Clark said I don’t see why not if we can afford it. Destiny said our money problems in this lifetime will be over when I finish this 4th concert tour.


Virgil told Clark before he left that they had ordered 8 bee hives to pollinate the pastures and fruit trees and would put them up on the far side of the planned asparagus patch. The head screens, smokers and gloves would be stored in the barn. Clark said I don’t know anything about bees – Virgil and Teena said we do and so does Destiny. Teena said you just wait till you eat some out of the hive fresh honey on a comb. Clark told Virgil that he thought he had a good way to save half the cherries on those 80 foot tall cherry trees. Virgil just looked at him. Clark asked Virgil if the cherry trees could be driven to. Virgil said all the tres are spaced far enough apart that a truck could be driven between them. Clark told him to find a company that had those trucks with the extendable 40 or 50 foot bucket on them like the power company uses. He said see if you can hire 2 of them to put 3 or 4 sections of that 8 or 9 year bird net about 40 or 50 feet up and let the birds have the top 40 feet. Clark told Virgil not to spend more then 600 dollars on the truck rental because he could buy a lot of cherries for 600 dollars. He told Virgil it should not take more then 2 or 3 hours for a couple of experienced bucket operators to fasten the netting around the tree and let it drop down far enough to tie it to the bottom of the trunk. We can buy the bird netting off the internet as soon as he found out the rental price with drivers of those bucket trucks for 4 hours of work.

He caught up with Destiny in San Antonio and they continued the tour. Her fans were growing exponentially and requests for her to make an appearance everywhere were flowing in to Mr. Anderson. His secretary was almost swamped with those requests.

The 3rd concert tour ended and Destiny got 16 days off before the 4th and last tour started. They quickly went to the cabin to see how Teena and Virgil were doing. Virgil told them everything was going fine and then he threw the big BUT in. You need a walk in cooler for the milk and egg storage and a bigger tractor if you want that 60 acres fixed up for pasture, wheat and corn growing and I will need some help fencing off some sections for different things. Destiny just said order those things, hire some help and I will put some money on your debit card to pay for them. Clark noticed Virgil had been extremely busy while they were gone. There was at least 15 cords of cut to size dead hardwood stacked up under the wood shed. The barn was full of hay and chicken feed. There were 6 Dexter small cows, 2 looked like they were about to calve and 2 de horned young bulls out in the pasture. The chicken area had at least 50 chickens with 3 or more different breeds in it. Virgil told Clark that the bucket men had hung the bird netting on the 2 cherry trees and did a professional job and the price was 480 dollars for 2 hours work. Clark said good now we need a couple of 40 foot extendable ladders to pick the cherries next year. Virgil said we have 1 and I will pick up another one at Lowes in a few days.


The next afternoon Virgil and Teena caught Clark and Destiny with their heels up on the front porch drinking lemonade. Virgil said that large walk-in smoker you have out there has hardly been broke in. If I bought a few sows and a few piggy’s we could have some real ham and bacon next fall. Destiny and Clark’s feet hit the porch just about the same time and they both said almost the same thing. Buy them. They were both lovers of the other white meat especially bacon, pork BBQ, pork chops and sausage. Virgil said we can feed them the extra milk and there will be plenty of vegetables, corn and fruit for them to eat next summer and I plan on growing some summer and winter squash for them. I will need some help making a section of land with mud bogs and some cemented in the ground fencing to make sure they cannot get away. Virgil continued on by saying there is a medium sized apple and pear orchard with a few peach trees on that 2nd property beyond those hardwoods. Clark said I did not know that. Virgil kind of grinned and said neither did the corporation that sold it to you or the price would have gone up considerably. Clark asked Destiny to ride the 4 wheelers over and take a look at it.

After they came back from looking at the orchard and stuffing their pockets full of the fruit Destiny asked Teena if they would go collect some of the apples and pears. Teena said we already did that. The root cellar is 1/8th full of fruit. We had to go to Wal-Mart and buy a bunch of those milk crates to store them in. Next year we will hire a few young people to help us pick and sell the extra fruit not needed for the pigs at the farmers market. We may need to hire some people for the ton of hickory, walnuts and butternuts that you will get next year and this fall. There are also 6 cold hardy pecan trees in that orchard. There is no way we can pick the cherries on those giant trees. The birds will beat us to them unless you hire a helicopter to drop a bird net over them. Clark liked cherries and started to think about how to keep the birds out of those trees. Oh yes Teena told both of them we ordered two 9 tray Excalibur dehydrators to dry some of the produce and make jerky and a commercial grade nut-cracker. Clark just thought there are lots more things to running a small farm then he knew about.

Teena said to Destiny and Clark you have a really nice place here, me and Virgil found a large wild blueberry patch in amongst those hardwoods. There are wild raspberries and blackberries everywhere and I don’t much care for them but at the end of the farm right before you enter the hardwoods there are 2 paw paw trees. If you don’t mind we want to plant a large asparagus patch up by the old mine – there is a 40 X 40 foot kind of flat area that Virgil wants to plow up and fill it with 3 different kinds of asparagus plants and we need to fence off two 50 foot by 50 foot areas for squash and pumpkins. Destiny said you go right ahead and plant whatever you want except I never want to see another Okra plant. They both laughed because when they were young sometimes that was all they had to eat and they laughed again when Teena said you know I never had to chew them they just slid down my throat they were so slimey. After that laugh session things got back to normal.

Clark soaked a pound and a half of pinto beans over night and dug a large chunk of left over Tavern ham out of the freezer. The only meal he was comfortable with fixing. He pulled his trusty 12 inch cast iron skillet out and readied it for cornbread and sat the butter out to soften. Teena asked Clark and Destiny if they wanted some fried potatoes to go with the beans, they both said yes please because they both knew she made the best fried potatoes they had ever eaten. There was not much left of that simple meal when the 4 of them got through eating.

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Part 9.

It was going somewhere into the 13th month and Destiny’s concert tour and contract were over. Destiny told Clark let’s go to the farm, I need at least 2 months rest to get my energy back.

At just about the same time Clark and destiny were heading to the cabin Patient 0 slightly scratched his finger. The world’s worst ever calamity was beginning.

This also was the year that solar activity was supposed to increase but no one knew what kind of solar activity was to happen. Another world shattering disaster was brewing in the heavens far above earth.

The replicating virus in Patient 0 lungs detected this capillary bleed by some unknown way. Virus from the lungs migrated to the affected area and began what they were ultimately designed to do – annihilate the host. 6 days later Patient 0 noticed the red streaks and swelling in the scratched area. He deduced correctly that he had an infection and hurried off to the Dr. for some anti-biotic. 5 days later the red streaks, pus and swelling seemed to have gone away. The bacteria causing the inflammation had been eliminated. But upon closer examination of the scratched place it looked like raw exposed meat. He did not think too much of this and covered the spot with triple anti-biotic and put a large band aid on it.

3 days after Patient 0 put the anti-biotic on his finger the biggest solar flare in known history occurred. The SOHO satellite monitoring the sun picked up on this eruption and sent a signal back to a satellite dedicated to this sun monitoring object. The SOHO satellite electronics was destroyed a few minutes later by a massive EMP burst.

The satellite receiving the signal from the SOHO satellite stored it in its buffer cache which was sent to Goddard Space Center in Maryland every 6 hours. This was Sunday evening - time approximately 7PM or 1900 hours EST. The orbiting world satellites had about 13 hours working time left. The astronauts on the space station would eventually die from maybe something else other then the virus unless they could repair the escape shuttle electronics that fired the rockets with cobbled up functional electronic components.


The massive solar storm coronal ejection sped towards earth through the vacuum of space at 7 or so million miles per hour – this storm was so large and strong that it tore through the earth’s protective atmosphere even slightly penetrating the ground. This burst initially destroyed all but the most hardened electrical systems including most of the world’s computers on vehicle engines. The earth revolved through this bombardment for 4 days before the EMP finally penetrated a lot of the most hardened systems and finally the coronal ejection dissipated or kept on travelling through space beyond earth.

Around 730AM EST every new computerized gasoline and diesel powered vehicle running on any highway in the USA stopped, airplanes fell out of the sky, ocean liners became dead in the water and most computerized equipment failed. The power grid shut down. It was utter chaos. As the earth rotated through this massive solar sun bombardment the same thing happened on a world wide front. The only people this had absolutely no effect on were some undiscovered native tribes living deep in the tropical jungles.

The power going off caused Teena to cut her finger while she was peeling potatoes she tightly wrapped it in Saran Wrap after she put some triple anti-biotic on it and continued to peel potatoes for today’s lunch. Destiny was watching Teena that morning when she slightly cut her finger. She asked Teena why her fried potatoes were so much better then hers. Teena said not such a big secret you just have to use peanut oil in a big iron skillet and lightly sprinkle some onion salt and fresh ground pepper on the rinsed off and dried potatoes but make sure not to sprinkle too much which would overpower the potato taste of the slightly browned potatoes and make sure the oil is up to frying temperature before adding the sliced potatoes.

Destiny walked with Clark to the generator room to manually fire the 6200 watt Lister generator up. She watched him as he pulled the switch to disconnect the property from grid power. She also noted the Lister engine could not be started until the grid power switch was in the off position. She asked about that and he said it was to keep from electrocuting an electric maintenance man if he happened to be working on that power line. She said that was a good idea someone had – he just agreed with her. She asked him about the power grid and he said I have no idea what happened but hopefully they will get it back on before nightfall. He said those 14 nickel iron lifetime batteries and the fluid to charge them came in last week and only cost us about 18000 dollars. She laughed at that and said only 18000. He grinned at her and said yep. They had no idea of what was coming down the pike nor that all her hard earned money would become worthless in a very short time.
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Part 10.

The scientist’s at CDC were barely aware of this new virus and had been looking at it for a few weeks. The sectioned lung part containing the virus had been sent to the CDC from several sharp medical examiners that had performed autopsies and noticed the small spot on the lung. The 1st thing the CDC scientist’s noticed under the electron microscope was it was a bit smaller then the Aids virus and did not have as many interlocking nodes on its exterior. No one had ever seen anything like it. There was to be a world wide conference about 1PM EST about this new virus - which was not going to happen today or ever. The computerized diesel generators that were to power the CDC and the internet connection in case of massive power outages failed to come on line and probably never would.

Satellite communications were gone just like a snap of the fingers cut them off. Water supply to most major cities in the US stopped. No more flush toilets, no more clean drinking water and no more just in time grocery store delivery. Things were about to quickly get really bad in the USA and the rest of the grid powered world.

The US military had enough hardened running vehicles in country to maybe take care of two mid or large sized cities but communications had virtually broken down and command and control was non-existent. It did not seem that things could break down this quickly but they had. No one had ever conceived of such a massive breakdown in communications. The internet had shut down about 12 hours into the 1st day of the solar bombardment.

Clark and Destiny had no earthly idea of what was going on in the town 17 miles away. All they knew was the phones, TV, radio and power was out. They had no intention of going to town to find out – Destiny was on vacation and Virgil and Teena had stockpiled enough food in the store room and pantry to last 7 or 8 months. They also had bought a Country Living Grain Mill and had been grinding their own flour. Teena’s bread was to die for and Virgil made some of the biggest, fluffiest, layered biscuits Clark had ever eaten.

Most people get micro cuts on their fingers daily and never know it. These micro cuts would result in a huge population living a miserable and agonizing life for a while. The virus always migrated to a cut instead of becoming full blown in the lungs. Infected people who got cut on the face or near their private parts would be the 1st to die. How long this took was dependent on many variables. People who did not immediately treat their cut to keep bacteria from entering the wound and did not have access to anti biotic would naturally be the 1st to go. The micro cuts were normally not big enough to allow bacteria to enter so the virus would do the damage as soon as the long ago imprinted message to annihilate the host activated.

After 15 days even Destiny began to seriously wonder what had happened to the power grid and phones. Destiny asked Clark to take Virgil into town to find out what in the world had happened. She said you will have to take your truck because my car and Virgil’s truck will not run. Clark had been busy during this time and had added the rest of the solar panels and his new lifetime batteries to his solar system giving him almost 6500 watts of panels. He had not yet calculated how many amp hours of batteries he had.

Virgil said I think we should take some firearms for a just in case. Clark thought that was an excellent idea. Destiny said I wish you would take a 4 wheeler or a running motor bike in case the truck breaks down. Clark thought the bored out 250cc to 300cc bike would carry both of them back up the mountain. They set off at 1PM by the time noted on the pull chain coo coo clock in the living room. It seems none of their electronic watches would work anymore. Clark did not miss the electronic watches he had several wind up and battery powered clocks in a cabinet and one wind up alarm clock on his bed stand. When Clark noticed the electronic clock failures he was willing to bet there had been some type of huge solar activity that had shut down all the electronics. He had just watched a special on PBS or the history channel a few weeks ago about that. Nuclear attack never entered his or the rest of the folks mind at the farm.

They had to stop the truck when they got to the high way there were automobiles parked every which way including some that were turned over on the roadway. Virgil said now I see why you always carried that 2 X 12 old piece of oak in the truck bed. It fit right over Clark’s bumper and he used that to push and clear autos off the roadway. The closer to town they got he noticed the automobiles had been pushed to the side. Clark told Virgil I have a feeling we should not take my truck any closer to town. Let’s ride the motor bike in. Virgil slung the pump shotgun over his shoulder and Clark checked the model 1911 45 he had slung on an old GI web belt with a military holster.

They saw people in town – A lot of them were just sitting on chairs in front of boarded up stores. One fellow came out in the street and asked to buy the motor bike from Clark. Clark just said no way because this is the only thing I found that would run. Finally he ran into someone he knew and asked what in tarnation was going on. The fellow told Clark that the people up at the university had put an old hand crank printing press together and put out that it was a huge solar storm that knocked out the world’s grid power and it did not look like it was going to be fixed for many years to come. The people up at the U sent out a person on horseback and said they would try to keep us informed with a flyer every 7 or 8 days. The fellow also told Clark they ain’t anything to buy and most folks were livin off their garden. If I was you I would not leave that motor bike un-guarded. Joe Bob over at the junk yard got a few old diesel engines runnin that he is gonna put in some truck bodies he got. Not too much runnin around here in the way of automobiles. He asked Clark if anything was running out at his place and Clark lied and said no I have to go to the creek to get water and boil it on my wood stove. My well is too deep for me to pull up any water. I got a small potato patch me and Virgil been livin off of but not too much else to eat. The fellow said yep that’s the way all of us is livin. Clark said I am gonna have to borrow some gas from one of those stopped automobiles. You don’t think any body will say anything, do ya. The fellow laughed and said gasoline ain’t much use except for startin fires so hep yoursef. Oh yes there is one more thing seems like there is some kind of infection goin around that won’t let cuts heal up so make sure you keep yoursef clean.

[Lbox88]

Part 11.

Virgil and Clark made it back to the farm without meeting anyone else. Clark stopped at the entry to the farm and looked over at the 6 inch pipes on the gate and wondered just why the old coal miner had put such a strong gate up. He and Virgil tried to close the gates but they were rusted open and would need some motor oil on the hinges and probably a tow strap to pull the gates closed.

Destiny was sitting on the porch drinking tea or lemonade when they pulled up. She never moved as they got out of the truck. Clark just looked at her and asked aren’t you curious – she said yep but I can’t get the information into my head until you start telling me. He laughed and said fair enough. All 4 of them sat on the porch and the 2 ladies waited for Clark to begin. The 1st thing he said is we are in big trouble. The next thing is we need to start rationing everything we have. Neither lady said anything. He told them what he had learned in town and how desperate everyone was.

Destiny sent Teena in to get a few notebooks and pens. She said OK we make some plans. Clark just said I wish I was one of those survivalists – I betcha we would not have to be making plans because we would be ready for anything. Everyone laughed. They agreed to close and lock the gates immediately since Clark had been to town. Teena said I will make the sign to put on the outside of the gate. No one said anything. Clark and Virgil got the gate locked and put up Teena’s sign.

The sign said – I WILL KILL YOU IF I SEE YOU ON MY PROPERTY.

They decided on several more things before going off to write their own ideas up separately.

The livestock was talked about next and Virgil said if we get 2 female calves from the 2 cows – we will mate them with one of the new bulls and hopefully one of those will be another bull to mate with – Clark said OK I understand how that works but we will have to mark the animals and keep a written record and a computer record of what is going on. I don’t think I can remember what is what or who is who 3 years from now. Virgil continued we are also lucky in that we have 3 different female pigs and 3 non-related male pigs to go along with that pregnant sow - We should separate them in the next few weeks and ear tag them. We have a good diversity of chickens and roosters so we will be good on chickens for at least 10 or more years. We will separate the roosters out when we need to get a new crop of chicks. Virgil said he would write it all up on the animals in case something happened to him. Everyone stopped and thought about that for a minute.

Next was the garden they had to decide how much bigger it would have to be to support at least 6 people. Clark just said you never know when we may pick up a stray heathen. Everyone grinned. They knew he was talking about maybe a new baby. Virgil gave them the seed report. He had enough for 3 years but that could be extended indefinitely because he had all heirloom seeds. The asparagus patch would be ready to cut some in 2 years and just a little wintertime composted cow manure and hoeing would be sufficient to keep it going for 50 or more years. I don’t have too much clover but we have enough for at least 3 plantings. Teena said we have a gross of wide mouth canning jars with a 2 year lid supply, but whoever lived here before left 2 gross of canning jars with those lifetime lids.

Virgil said we may run short of potatoes next summer but you can rest assured that won’t happen again. In order to save on chick feed I want to take 5 mosquito zappers and put them over the chicken run and in front of the coop to increase their protein, that will leave 5 around the pond to feed the fish – I did do something smart and bought enough calcium for the chickens to last 10 years if we ration it. Clark said can’t we grind up the egg shells for calcium – Virgil just said I never thought of that.

Most of the big important things were finished talking about they were now down to the small items that would be extremely valuable to them. It took about 11 days before everyone was satisfied with most of the long range plans. Teena and Destiny could type circles around Clark and Virgil so they were designated keepers of the 3 laptops and the one desktop. 2 of the laptops with some redundant information were stored in the 5th wheel.

Clark looked at Destiny one day while he was getting a pot out to make some soup and said I did not know I owned a pressure canner. She said we have 2 and the ingredients to make bread and butter pickles, peppers and tomatoes and a few other important things. He just said good.

4 months had gone by when Teena said I have an infection on my finger and it won’t heal up – I even took 10 anti-biotic pills when it got red and swollen. That went away but it will just not heal up and it looks just like raw meat. Virgil said I did not want to mention it but I have some kind of chest cough that will not go away. Clark then noticed Virgil had on gloves and he could never remember him ever taking them off except when he ate. The virus was starting its rampage.

Part 12.

Clark and Virgil decided to make another trip to town to see if there was any news on the infection and if the US military was distributing any food. They decided to walk the last 3 miles into town. Clark sent Virgil back to the truck because of the coughing fit he had.

Clark found the same fellow he knew from before and asked him the news. The man said it is bad. Where is that fellow you were with the last time? Clark said he had something like pneumonia and could hardly breathe. The man said yes those are the ones that go quick. They cough till they spit up blood and when that happens the lungs fill up and they die. The man said see that fellow over there on the porch he said he always cuts his face when he shaves. Clark looked and saw the side of the mans face including his eye was just a mass of raw red meat. The man asked Clark where his infection was. Clark lied again and said it ain’t any of your business but it is on my butt. The man chuckled and said the last flyer we got from the university said any infection was not curable and would eventually kill any one that had it. There are some kids in town that ain’t got it yet – maybe they will be lucky and not get it. Another lie by Clark when he said I hope I die quick and it don’t hurt much. The man said me too. Clark left and headed back.

Virgil was dead his body slumped over and his head and one arm hung out the window. He had bled out of his mouth and nose all over the outside door of the truck.

It was a sad ride back to the cabin. Destiny used the tractor to dig a hole. Clark and Destiny used some lumber in the barn to make a somewhat reasonable looking coffin. They buried him the next morning. Teena was devastated. Destiny had lost a kin folk and Clark had lost a true friend.

He asked Destiny if he should tell Teena her infection would eventually be fatal. She said let’s wait a while she has enough sadness in her now. That bad news would maybe make her want to commit suicide. Clark kept his mouth shut. He told her about some young kids in town that did not seem to be infected. She said we may have to go get them after people are too sick to take care of them. He wanted to make a joke about having 30 or 40 kids around to do all the work but didn’t.

The cities were absolutely total chaos – people were killing each other for no reason – the gangs noticed everyone including themselves were infected and decided to kill everyone and take over the city. They ran out of bullets before they could even kill a teeny percentage of the people. It takes a lot of bullets to kill several million people.

The police had long ago left their job to stay home and protect their families. Un-filtered, un-boiled dirty river/creek water and lack of food killed a huge portion of the cities.

There were very few running vehicles and people could not walk out into the country and even if they did they would get shot trying to trespass on some farmers land. The few that thought they would camp out in the woods and kill an animal found out that the deer would not come into their camp so the idiots could shoot them. Most of those people ended up being food for the wildlife they had intended to kill.

The survivalists and preppers did not have the problems the city dwellers had they had another problem. It was called the Insidious virus.

Part 13.

Clark knew that he would have to scavenge someday – he and Destiny made a list, they knew looking for food locally was out of the question. If they could not grow it, it would not be available. The top items on their lists were the fuel stabilizers, propane, diesel, feed for the chickens, cows, pigs and seeds. He put gasoline and gasoline fuel stabilizer on the list because of the 4 wheelers (he was planning on fixing), snow machine, weed eaters, lawn mowers and motorcycles. All 3 of them were extremely interested in the healthy kids.

3 months had passed since Clark had been to the city. Teena’s left arm was in a sling now and the virus had eaten all the way to her elbow leaving mostly flesh and bone wrapped up in sterile towels and a tourniquet above the raw meat section to keep her from bleeding to death. She said it did not hurt but that was hard for Clark to believe. If she hit one of the nerves she turned pale and let out a little gasp. Clark wanted her to pass the rest of her time sitting on the porch or on the couch in the living room but she still used her right hand to help where ever she could. Clark thought as soon as it ate to the big vein under her armpit or went to the carotid artery that would be it.

Clark decided to wait 2 more months before going scavenging. On the 6th week Destiny told Clark she’s gone. Clark dug the hole beside her husband and they wrapped her in the bedding she died in because she had bled out on it.

It had been about 22 months since the virus was released in the WVU medical research center.

Destiny told him to go to town and find out about those kids. When he arrived in town there was no one walking about or sitting in front of the boarded up stores. He searched the town but did not find anyone alive. He thought they had all died or left. He decided to go home. He was just about to the edge of town when he heard a kid’s voice say Mr.

There were 2 frail looking kids standing there. They asked him if he had any food and he said he sure did. The littlest one said I have to get my friends – can you feed them too. Clark said yes. The little girl left and came back with 3 more frail hungry looking little people. There were 5 kids, 3 girls and 2 boys he would find out in a little bit they were all 6 years old and were neighborhood friends.

Clark told them to wait right here he would get his vehicle so they could ride. 15 minutes later he had the 5 little ones in his pick-up heading to the farm. Destiny saw him pull into the yard and watched him help the little ones out of the vehicle. He told Destiny to make some stew and butter some bread because these kids had not eaten well in a long time. She ran and got some apples from the root cellar and gave each of the kids 2 before making some stew. He showed the kids where the shower was but told them to just wash their hands for now. After they ate they could take a warm shower and while they were showering their clothes would be washed.

The kids did not get to take a shower because after they ate they all fell asleep on the couch and in the overstuffed chairs. Clark told destiny to leave them sleep. After they were rested they could sort out what had happened. The kids all woke up at 6AM they were fed and then they finally got to take a shower. The 3 girls fit in the over sized shower room and all 5 were given one of Clark’s T-Shirts to wear until their clothes were washed and dried. Destiny was curious how they survived without any adults to take care of them. One girl said we used tin foil to wrap potatoes in and sometimes we would wrap some carrots and cooked them in an open fire or charcoal grill if we found charcoal. Our parents showed us how to do that. And we were told to wash the potatoes and carrots in the creek before we cooked them in the tin foil and to make sure we ate the potato skin. Robert would sometimes catch a lot of small minnows with his little fishing pole with little pieces of worms on a teeny hook and we would cook them whole in tin foil and eat them, we did not like to eat them but we did because we were so hungry. We used a lot of salt and pepper on the things we cooked.

Clark knew he was going to have to make a Wal-Mart trip for clothes, shoes, kid’s vitamins and tooth brushes amongst other things. He wanted them to rest, eat to build up their stamina. He figured they were run down because of a lack of food and the various minerals and vitamins they had not been getting. He underestimated the joy of being young. After a noon nap they wanted to explore and play with the animals. Destiny looked at the sizes on the clothes they were wearing and sent Clark to Wal-Mart to outfit them. It took Clark 4 hours to find all those sizes for the boys and girls. While in the store he never let down his guard but there were no more threats alive in this community. He would not find that out till later. There was no smell in the place because there was no food left to rot nor were there any dead bodies. He noticed while walking through the place to the kids department that the place was not torn up only the food shelves were empty.

It took 2 days and 3 more trips to Wal-Mart to get everything for the 5 kids. Destiny knowing subconsciously the girls would be more responsible moved them into the 5th wheel trailer just to sleep. The 2 boys were put in the spare bedroom. He would get bunk beds for them in a few days. Everyone was assigned a small task just to keep them busy. Destiny told Clark she would start home schooling them on the important things in life in a week or two. Clark almost started an argument on their schooling but she shut that down real fast. They will start learning the 3 R’s, US and world history. He shut up and said maybe I can help with the schooling. She said I know you will because they need to learn how to hunt, forage, grow things, be knowledgeable about all about the farm animals and generally know how to handle themselves (self defense) while away from the farm when they get older. We will both teach them how to interact with other survivors if and when we ever find any. He thought maybe he had put his foot in his mouth.

A food change was in the making. Clark knew there was a ton of 2 or so pound catfish in the creek fed stock pond so he had the children go fishing with him. 14 fish later they all helped with the skinning or filleting of the fish and they had fried fish for supper with a bowl of vegetables. He told them once or twice a week they would all go fishing until they started catching small fish and they would quit till the fish grew to eating size again. Destiny said I want you to trap a hundred or so craw dad’s every 2 or 3 weeks so we can have shrimp tails. He agreed and wondered where his minnow traps were stored or if he had to go to Wal Mart and get some more.

Picking, storing, drying and canning the garden produce was labor intensive. Clark asked destiny why Virgil had planted so many squash and pumpkins. She said pig food. He said well at least we don’t have to can it - she said some we will can but remember pumpkin pie but we can add some sweet potatoes to it for a slightly different taste. She said but the remainder the kids will have to carry to the root cellar for storage. The root cellar had been dug into the side of the mountain above the water table and was 24 X 24 by 8 feet tall, sectioned into 3 parts with a gravel floor. Clark initially did not want to enter the place until he saw the roof and walls was 5/8 inch steel road plate welded together and held up by 16 six inch steel pipes cemented into the ground. After he saw that he wondered how much it cost to do a job like that. He did not know that 11 coal miner friends of the then owner with some borrowed heavy equipment had done the job 30 or 40 years ago dirt cheap. He also did not know that most of the materials were absconded from the coal mines.