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just another story #4 - The Pilot - Part 16
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When the Chinese launched their attack off both coasts of the US; America responded, but they were just a little late. The Chinese had perfected their missiles and the 64 multiple warhead missiles worked flawlessly. 256 warheads detonated all over the continental US with the results you would expect from a 75 kiloton nuclear detonation. One minute before the submarines launched, 164 ICBM’s were launched from mainland China. The major cities in Alaska, Canada and Mexico were targeted. India launched 16 at China and 22 at Pakistan. Pakistan was almost too late in their launch, but they fired 23 missiles at India. Israel just stared at their radar screens in amazement, until they saw the blooms from Iran pointing towards their tiny country. They launched 122 missiles at Iran and the rest of the Middle East Muslim population centers. The Middle East was a blazing cauldron of sand melted into huge chunks of molten glass. The idiots in Central America jumped on the bandwagon and launched at the US, a mistake on their part. 4 B2 bombers turned the lush green Central American jungle territory into dry burning desert lands. The radiation from this many nuclear events destroyed the ionosphere for years to come mostly eliminating all radio traffic. Any non protected living red blood celled animal would die just like a human from radiation poisoning. 85% of the US population was boiled into their original component atoms and those not near a blast center received a death dose of radiation. The Chinese submarines that had fired on the US went into silent mode and sank to the bottom where they would stay for 10 days when they would rise back up and fire the biological warheads.

3 weeks later Clark and his dad headed for the city. Clark’s mind as they travelled was on that green eyed girl that looked pretty darn good, the tall one wouldn’t be spurned either. Earl was no dummy and told Clark we have to come in from either the west side or the east side to the middle of the city. Those bikers are not all that dumb to not watch the area we attacked them from the last time. He was wrong. There were no look outs. Rock had fallen back into staying drunk as long as he was awake and the parties in the street had begun again.

Clark asked his dad about an attack plan for this raid. Earl said let’s watch for a little while, it’s only about 10 pm. OK Earl said an hour later, they are all drunk and none of them can shoot worth a nickel in their condition. Leave the 50 caliber right here and we will pick it up on the way out. We are going to do a massacre. Lock and load the AK and I’ll take the M1. We will get up to about 75 yards and same routine as the first time, only full auto fire, I’ll spray from left to right and you spray from right to left. We should get 90 % of them this time because we both have automatic weapons and the 1st time I had that semi-auto AR-15. The gang had big fires in 2 metal street trash cans and were all standing around both the fires drinking heavily, and listening to a battery powered CD boom box, which was blaring out heavy metal music. Some had just lain down on the street and passed out. Rock was sitting on the tail gate of a pick-up just staring off into the distance in a deep alcoholic haze. Earl had shown Clark how to tape two 30 round magazines back to back for an instant reload without fumbling for another magazine. He told Clark 4 magazines are all you want for tonight’s work. If we can’t hose that little section of street down with 240 rounds, we ain’t got any business starting this little shin dig. Clark looked over at his dad right before the shooting started and saw a bright evil gleam emanating from his dads eyes. Clark wondered if this is what real combat troop’s eyes looked like going into immediate battle. After the shooting, Clark looked at his dad picking up the spent magazines lying on the ground, he said as soon as he had them in his hand, let’s de de.

just another story #4 - The Pilot - Part 17
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Earl was wrong about the 90%, fatalities there was only one person left breathing and he was badly wounded. There was a bullet hole through his right shoulder that had shattered the bone and his left knee cap had been almost torn from his knee by a ricochet. It was Rock and he had fallen onto his back into the pickup bed. Blood was pulsing from his shoulder wound and the intense humongous pain from his left leg had immobilized him. He died just as the sun broke through the morning fog.

The 2 women were walking just off the road way when they saw another woman in khaki pants and a short sleeve khaki shirt working by a fire that had a large pot on it hanging from a tripod. This was Clark’s mom. Mary Lou and Susan said let’s see if it’s safe here, she un-slung the 22 and hollered out to the woman. Edna heard a female voice and waved at the one hollering. They had a brief conversation and Edna said let me get my husband and we can talk over your situation. Clark was asleep and missed the first part of this meeting.

The 2 ladies would camp in the yard and look for a house close to the Clark’s for a time until things could be figured out what the 2 ladies were going to do or where they could stay. About this time the mighty captain who also had not seen a woman in several months woke up and was told of the meeting with the 2 women. He said YES, his mind was light years ahead of his dad and mom when it came to unattached females. Put them in the basement, the bed and cot are still there. Did you tell them about me, he asked his dad? The response was, I think your mom did. The rain had just started when Edna told the 2 women about the basement.

Clark was chomping at the bit to meet a possible partner. He maintained his cool when he talked to the slightly disheveled looking females in the basement. He told them about the shower and the cold water. But pointed out the large wash tub that could be filled, heated on the stove and put in the plastic 3 gallon bag hanging on the shower head, The bag had small holes punched in it for a quick warm rinse.

Susan said to Mary Lou that Clark is hot; Mary Lou said I noticed that. They talked about sex and who would approach him. They both decided that they were still sore from being brutally raped, sodomized and other unspeakable things they had to do for the gang. The decision was made to tell him they had been mistreated while captives and wanted to wait a little while before any male contact would be thought about.

just another story #4 - The Pilot - Part 18
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A house was found for them a few miles away and water was brought to drink, bathe, cook and flush the toilets. The contact Clark had with them while they were recovering in the house was minimal. He just waited and that’s when Earl decided to take on the gang with the results already covered.

Two months had gone by since Cark and Earl had taken out the gang, which they were not totally sure of. They made another foray to town when the weather had turned to a little above freezing. They scouted the whole town for 5 days and did not see or hear anything. They decided it was safe to resume a little scavenging. Susan and Mary Lou were invited to pick up some items for themselves. The scavenging took 3 trips to gather all the items the women wanted.

Mary Lou and Susan had made a big decision to share Clark since he was the only good guy they had met since the world had fallen apart.

Clark’s mom was told about this and she had nothing to say for the moment. She talked about the girl’s decision with Earl, and he just said I wonder if he can handle 2 women. Edna said do you have intentions of helping him? He opened his mouth to say something but his brain kicked into gear. He just said I am going to check on the chickens. During their trips to town Mary Lou and Susan had went to a pharmacy and picked up STD specific anti-biotic and taken them. They were sure none of the gang members had AIDS. This would not be known for many years if they had been infected.

Thanksgiving Dinner: The girls were invited, 2 chickens had been killed and roasted. The dinner was superb. That night after dinner Clark was told by the 2 ladies what they had decided. He was thunderstruck and did not have a quick comeback. The girls giggled for a long time at the expression on his face.

And that’s the end of just another story, the pilot. Thanks for reading.

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Clark Story #5 - The Kroger College Boy
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Clark was 16 years old and dumber then 3 boxes of rocks stacked on top of each. He was of age so he dropped out of high school. Being dumb did not mean he was dumb in everything. He had learned just about everything there was to know about hunting, trapping, tracking and fishing from those hillbilly cousins of his in the next hollow over.

The game warden looked at Clark and shook his head, Clark and 2 of his 5 cousins had just been caught after dynamiting a large pond to gather fish up for a Friday night fish fry. 3 of the cousins escaped through the woods and ran laughing all the way home. After his mom came and got him, she told him to pack his bags and move out. He stood there struck dumb. She kept on and on about how stupid he was to quit school and he was going to end up in the penitentiary if he didn’t straighten up. As he was walking out the door with a large suit case, she hollered out to him, do not call me from the jail house to come get you or send money for you to buy sodas and chips. It ain’t gonna happen.

Clark told himself, she does not really mean for me to live on my own, I’m only 16 years old. A week later he sneaked back into the house through the back door. He told himself I knew she wasn’t going to make me stay out and freeze by butt off or starve as he drifted off to sleep in that nice soft bed of his he had slept in for 16 years. The next thing he knew was 2 deputy sheriff’s had him handcuffed and were dragging him out the front door in only his undershorts.

The sheriff had him handcuffed to a bolted down steel chair in front of his desk and was sitting there smoking a cigarette and blowing the smoke into smoke rings up in the air. Clark was scared to death because he had no idea what was going to happen to him. The sheriff finally dropped those large size 12 boots off the corner of his desk and turned in the swivel chair to face Clark. He started off with, 2 years in a boy’s home will probably do you some good, and then again it may not. Let’s see what kind of charges we got here on you boy. Breaking and entering, resisting arrest, violation of a restraining order and threatening one Thelma Clark (Clark’s mom) with bodily harm; Dang boy if you was 18 I could probably talk the Judge into giving you 5 years hard time. Clark’s mouth had not shut since he heard breaking and entering. Got anything to say for yourself boy, on second thought I don’t want to hear anything you got to say. He took his night stick and beat it on the wall beside his desk. The door opened and a huge 6 foot 8 or so 300 pound black man came in wearing a deputy uniform. The sheriff said get this piece of white trash out of my office, take him down to juvenile center and book him in. He will be out of our hair for a long time. The sheriff had greased the wheels of justice a little and the juvenile judge sent Clark off to the detention center for 2 years.

It all happened so fast Clark could not get his bearings straight. In less then 30 days Clark was sitting in an 8 bunk concrete bay, concertina wire on top of the chain link outside, with 7 other people under 18 years of age.

He learned a lot of really neat things in the next 23 months; Real surreptitious breaking and entering, car theft, how to open safes and shut down alarms. He even finished his high school GED. But the most important thing he learned was he knew he was never going to do anything to be put back in a cage like this again.

Just another story #5 - The Kroger College Boy -Part 2
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He called his mom and told her he had learned his lesson and would never ever do anything to disappoint her again. She said come on home and I’ll give you a week to see if you mean what you say. Oh yes before you come home I want to warn you those cousins of yours you always ran around with are not allowed on this property. That trash was from your daddy’s side of the family, bless his soul.

He was shocked at his mom’s appearance when he arrived home. She had a yellowish tinge to her skin and had lost 30 pounds of the 140 she always carried around. He knew she would tell him in a day or two. Now he said to himself as he unpacked his small bag if I can only not make her mad at me, I’ll have some place to sleep.

He got a job as a stock boy at the Kroger’s in town and saved most of his meager salary after he helped buy groceries. His mom did tell him she had the same type of cancer his dad had died from 4 years earlier. He asked how much time do you have left; she said the doctors told me could be 6 months to a year.

About 2 months later his mom said well I see you doing what you said you would do and that’s good. I want to get my affairs in order and here’s what you are going to have to do when I am gone. She had a 15,000 dollar life insurance policy and 2500 dollars in her bank account. I already bought my coffin and plot, all you have to do is pay for it when you get the insurance money. He looked at how much the funeral his mom had planned for herself would cost and let out a low whistle.

She died about the 9th month of the 6 to 12 months the doctors had given her. The 1st thing he did was cancel the coffin, the plot and had a rental coffin for her to be displayed in. There would be no embalming and he went to a furniture store and got a refrigerator box for her to be incinerated in, saved 900 dollars there was his thinking; 1200 no embalming, 7000 for a coffin and 1400 dollars for the plot. He had to pay for the rental display coffin, the showing, transportation to the incinerator and the brass urn her ashes were in.

He sat her brass urn in the kitchen window so he could say hello to her every morning.

Just another story #5 - The Kroger College Boy -Part 3
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This morning he started out his conversation to the Brass jug with, mom, I want to explain to you why I did not comply with your wishes. When I make enough money, I am going to build you a concrete mausoleum on the side of the hill behind the house facing north because you always said you loved to watch the snow storms come from that direction. You own that property and I have long term plans for the property to be used just for that for longer then a 1000 years or more. If I spent all your insurance money on your funeral, I would have been right back to where I was before you died. Worse than almost broke. The property tax on the house is due, your truck insurance is due, the utilities are due, the roof needs new shingles, the hot water tank quit working, the fridge quit getting things cold and something has to be done to that back wall of the basement that keeps oozing water in. I really am sorry for having you burned, but I am of the belief now that once the body essence leaves, the remaining carcass is nothing but an empty shell. So wherever your essence is, I apologize and will try to make things straight as time goes along. I’ll talk more to you this evening.

Clark did not shirk while he was working and the manager noticed this. He got an increase in pay and was put in charge of the stock crew. Clark then finally realized the difference between non-high school, a high school and a college graduate. He was 19 years old. Some of the temporary stock crew was college students and as he talked with them he realized the difference in intelligence between them and himself. These guys had dreams, goals and would be making 400 times or more money then he would ever make working for Kroger’s. That posed a problem for him, where on earth would he ever get money to attend college. The military was out, to structured, to many bosses just like the juvie detention center. He would think on this lack of education he had and how could he improve it to raise his standard of living.

His cousins all had criminal records now and were just a step away from serving long sentences in the penitentiary. They had gotten into using, growing dope, muling (delivering) cocaine loads for bigger dealers and just generally were what the sheriff had called him in that chair he was handcuffed to a long while ago, white trash. He was glad his mom made him stay away from them. They had cornered him a few times and he laid out the situation to them. He needed a place to stay and if they could guarantee him some food and a place to stay he would think about running with them. The offer to help him out never came so the kids that grew up together just drifted apart.

He was really on his own now and had to make good just to keep the house he had and keep the promise he had made to his mom in that brass urn.

Just another story #5 - The Kroger College Boy -Part 4
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Everything in the house either got fixed or replaced and he finally got a computer, it was a 3rd hand me down from one of the college students he kept in contact with, but the college boys had souped it up and it ran fine. He never upgraded the 13 inch black and white tv that they watched on the kitchen cabinet and it still worked, One of the neighbors about 4 mile down the road was putting out a 25 foot aluminum antenna for the trash men to pick up. Clark asked him why he was throwing it away and he said he had went to satellite tv and didn’t need it anymore, Clark asked him if he could have it. The man told him to take it. Clark got it installed up on the side of his house and found out he could now receive 6 stations instead of 2. He was impressed and it was all free.

He had been thinking about this education thing for several months now and was talking to one of the college boy stockers at work one night. The boy said why don’t you take some classes on line. I have to take a make up course and I am doing it on line. Clark was amazed at what these college boys knew and just think you can go to school from your house, amazing. That was fine and dandy till he saw how much each course on line cost. It would take him 75 years to graduate from college at those prices. Back to the drawing board; again he approached one of the student part time stock boys and asked about fixing computers up. This one just said cheaper now to throw it away and buy a new one; good money now in computers is installing software for dummies and showing them how to use what you put in their machine. That’s not to say there are not shops that do fix computers, they really don’t fix them, they take the broken part out and put a new part in and that’s about it. Now guys who design the chips and hard drives that is still a lucrative business. The student asked him about mathematics he knew; Clark told him addition, subtraction and that. No the boy said, algebra and on up. Clark said never took any thing higher than business math. The boy shook his head and said I’ll bring you some things to look at next work period.

The boy brought Clark some primers on algebra, geometry and a basic college English book with copies of tests he had had. Over the next few weeks, Clark holed up in his house going through algebra and found he had a flair for it. He would study algebra from the book and an on line place he had called practical mathematics. When his brain got tired of math, he jumped into the English books and found out he was really a dummy. He did not quit and with the help of some online help, he finally had a good understanding of 1st year algebra and the fundamentals of college English. Even though 6 months had gone by he had patted himself on the back for homeschooling himself on a couple of college classes. The boy that had got him started on the algebra left for the summer and Clark told him he could have his job back when he returned. The boy gave him the materials and books for Literature 1 and said he would see him the end of summer. Wow Clark said after he started to read the lit materials. There were many books he would have to buy or go to the college library and check out. His other college boy part timer told him sure he could borrow his library card. Clark asked him if he would go with him the 1st time so he would know how to act. The boy laughed and said OK meet me there at 4 pm tomorrow. Their shift started at 8 pm so he would have plenty of time to look around. This routine of Clark’s went on for about a year and a half. He then found out he could test out for a class and not have to take it if he could pass the test. And he found out there was a stiff fee for taking the test. But it was100 dollars and the class cost 1500 dollars. He had nothing to lose except the hundred bucks. The more he talked to these college boys the more he learned how they got around the system.

He learned that once you got the 1st 2 years of trash classes is what the students called them, English, Algebra, Psych, Soc, Lit and either biology, chemistry or Physics you were home free to take the classes you wanted to specialize in. Clark thought about this for a long time and finally concluded the college was right to make the students take these classes, unless you wanted to be a scientist that could not communicate or an engineer who could fix things but couldn’t tell you how he fixed them. Clark also realized he had no idea what kind of college degree he wanted. He was pushing 21 years old and had tested out on all the 2 year classes except biology, chemistry or Physics. They would not let him test out on those classes. If he could take one of those classes he would have a 2 year degree. He had been saving every penny he made except for required bills. The manager knew what he was doing and let him take food that would expire the next day and dented cans home so he could save his money. This helped Clark tremendously as it just about totally eliminated his food bill. That September he enrolled in college and took 2 classes, Physics and Chemistry. He had been studying these books for 8 months and practically knew the material and what to expect on tests by heart. He never missed a class and soaked up the material the instructor put out that was not in the books or notes. He made a lot of friends, especially when they found out he was doing this on his own and working nights at Kroger’s. Something else he picked up on, summer classes. He thought about that all winter and decided he would take the whole class instead of the shortened ones in the summer. He liked chemistry and Physics and decided to take Physics 2 and chemistry 2 the following year. He had saved enough money to go to school if he did not take more then 2 classes a semester. He laughed and told himself 8 more years and I’ll be a college graduate and 30 some years old. He really knew more then any 2 year student knew because he had studied most of the class material that was offered for all the 2 year degrees. He still had no idea what he wanted to be when he grew up and he laughed some more at that. Finally he was almost 22 years old and had an AS degree in science. The only bad thing about it was he would never be able to put on a job application he had a 2 year college degree.

The SHTF at 230 am EST 12 May.

Just another story #5 - The Kroger College Boy -Part 5
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The Kroger building started to collapse around him as he just got the metal cart through the back door taking out a bad load of lettuce. He ran to the middle of the street and could barely see by the starlight a power pole was falling toward him slowly because the power lines were still holding it up, he moved away from that spot closer to the collapsed building, sat down in a clear spot and rode out the rumbling and ground movement. It is a good thing he sat down facing the way he did or he would have been blinded as it was he was only partially blinded for a few minutes. The next wave of ground movement was 3 time’s worse then the 1st. He was bucked up in the air and slammed back down bruising his butt badly twice more. The excruciating bright light a hundred times brighter then any lightning also flashed over his head twice more. He knew in his heart he was going to die and die blind.

Everything settled down, all he could hear were falling things, a cry for help, some screaming. His vision slowly came back and he could see the fires in the houses around him, gas lines burst and some sparks set them off he said to himself. If I was a betting man I would bet that was a nuclear bomb or 3 that just went off. That would be a winning bet. Now that he was a college boy he knew a bushel full more then when he got out of juvie. The only target for someone to blow up would be that huge DuPont Chemical Plant about 40 some mile north west from here. He finally got his bearings and faced into the wind and using the old simple rule, face rising sun in the east, north is on your left; he knew where the sun rose already. The wind was not blowing towards him, so he was safe from fallout for the immediate moment. The next thing he thought of was gamma radiation, he looked at the 12 foot deep pile of bricks he had sat beside of on the road and he didn’t think that was a factor, because the intense light had flashed over him. The road was toast. There was a 5 foot gap leading out of the parking lot to get his vehicle onto the road. No vehicle escape there. He didn’t think the college student who was a part time stock boy would mind if he took his bike since it was likely he was under 8 or more feet of brick. He did take the time to walk out on the crumbled building top and listen for any help yells. He heard not a sound. The bicycle was in good shape and had a bright set of led lights. He would have to lift the bike over the fallen poles in the road and hope the mountains had not come down and force him to carry the bike over that pile of rubble. The trip was about 17 miles to his house and he hoped this was not a waste of time thinking his house may have fallen down. He did not need information yet. He needed to vacate the immediate town and hunker down before the surviving idiot ghouls came out and started plundering, thinking the world had come to an end.

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Just another story #5 - The Kroger College Boy -Part 6
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It was daylight when he pedaled up to his house and gave a big sigh of relief. The mountain where he was going to put his mom’s mausoleum had slid down onto that area, other than that the place looked OK. He carried all the dented cans he had been squirreling away and carried them to his basement brought his 30 30, the shotgun and the 22 down, fell on the couch and went to sleep. There was nothing he alone could do if he got irradiated and died.

There was a manual well pump in the basement and he had just had his septic system cleaned so that was good for several years. The upstairs water ran off electric and he did not think that would be in use any time soon if ever. There must have been 600 power poles down he passed on the way home, most of them had fallen sideways the way the line pulled them. But not all, he probably had to lift the bike over 45 or so. The basement had a 4 inch pad of concrete over it with a couple of feet of dirt. So if he did not get a huge amount of fallout he should be safe. He looked at and noticed the way the wind was blowing the leaves on the trees and the grass; he made a hasty trip up to his room gathered up all his reading material, candles, kerosene lantern and the 2 quarts of clean smelling kerosene his momma called it and beat feet back. He thought about bringing the urn, but left it on the window sill. The only windows in the basement were the 3 panes in the door. He taped up the door and folded up the 8 foot metal table that was in the center of the room and taped it over the door. That’s the best I can do he thought. Now I wait at least 3 weeks.

About the 10th day he got slightly sick and lost a little bit of head hair. He just kept eating all kinds of soups and drinking water, 4 days later he felt a lot better. So he said to himself I did get a small amount of radiation but it wasn’t enough to make me bleed inside or have screaming bouts of dysentery. I think I will stretch those 3 weeks out to 6 or 8 weeks unless the military drives up to my house and tells me it is safe. That’s not going to happen since I am the last house ¾ of a mile up this hollow.

The only thing he missed was that little black and white tv and some of those old timey funny shows he would watch and the news. He had started studying calculus. Never know when I may have to build my own nuke and he started laughing and thought that was funny. He stayed 10 weeks in the basement and still had enough dented cans to stay another 10 weeks. He wanted for there to be many heavy rains before he left to make sure the fallout was washed down into the culverts away from his house and into the river.

The 1st place he started to go to was his cousins, but they didn’t have a basement and none of them knew what radiation was. He changed his mind and rode up to their house, found just what he thought he would find, they were all laying in awkward looking positions in the living room around a pile of white powder on a coffee table and stacks of money. He shut the door and rode back to the main road.

Just another story #5 - The Kroger College Boy -Part 7
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He looked at the road for any tracks and found nary a one. The deep imprints he had made crossing some of the dirt on the road were still there. It was a little eerie, there were no birds chirping to bring the morning in. He looked at the sky it was a shade of grey he had never seen but there was no dust or particles falling, so he kept on towards the Kroger store he had left 10 weeks ago. He ran into his first body when he got to the deep crack in the road leading towards the parking lot. It had been here for a long while and had not been eaten on. He continued across the crack and looked the store building over or I should say the collapsed mass of bricks. Not much to see there. His truck or what was formerly his mom’s truck was sitting there with just a little dirt on it. He got in and it started. He looked around closely and saw he could just get across the rail road tracks and then he said what next. I would need a tow chain to pull the power poles out of the way and a chain saw and a big set of bolt cutters to cut the wire. To much to do today, I’ll stop at that small hardware store by the highway on the way back and pick up what I need. Smacked himself, need gas, 2 cycle oil, bar lubricating oil. Thing’s are getting complicated right quick, he thought. He rode the bike towards the college town to see if he could get across the bridge. Nope, bridge was down in the river; Going to need a boat if I want to go check that town. He stopped at the little hardware store and had to use a big rock to break the safety glass out of the door, then had to crawl through the window frame. He found everything he was going to need to use a vehicle to get back and forth to his house except gas. He looked over at the huge empty silent plant that used to make ferrous alloy for shipment and a weak light flashed in his brain. Why not use a piece of heavy equipment like a road scraper to clear the road. Even though I don’t know how to operate one, I bet I could learn quickly. He pulled the little notebook and pen he had taken from the hardware store and made a few notes. He then went home.

It was raining the next morning so he stayed in. The following morning at daylight he left for the plant, the roadway across the bridge was out but there were 3 or 4 other entrances to the place and of course they were chained shut. He went back to the hardware store and got a large set of bolt cutters that would cut that heavy chain. It was hard to carry the bolt cutters and keep his 30 30 hung in just the right position. Finally after all that he found a large and I mean large road scraper that was used to push tons of coal into position for the end loaders to scoop it up on the moving belt into the furnace area. There was no key just a big button that said start and a switch that said off. He looked at the various controls and found what he thought was the clutch, it was. Fired the machine up and slowly began feeding diesel fuel into the engine while playing with the levers. OK he got the scraper up off the road 4 or 5 inches and my goodness it stayed there. Pushed it into what it said was #1 and the thing actually moved forward, he spent 10 more minutes playing with the controls and he was off. The fuel tank said full, so he was good to go on that problem. He drove it back towards his house and pushed those 40 some poles off to the side and headed back to finish the rest of the job. He cleared a path on the other side of the rail road so he could get his truck out and drove through the small town Kroger’s was in and cleaned those 2 roads up. Well he could now travel about 20 miles until he figured out how to get more gas for his truck or got another automobile that had gas.

He drove his truck home and got into bed early after making a lot of notes. He had not went into any more houses after he had been in his cousin’s house, the putrid smell had made him sick for hours.

Just another story #5 - The Kroger College Boy -Part 8
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I know there has to be other people alive because of the many bomb shelters that people built in the 50’s here and the survivalists that live in this mountainous area. Unless they had not got in their shelter fast enough or came out to early. Something else he didn’t know or had not thought it completely through yet, unless you were sheltered like he was behind a 12 foot deep pile of an 80 foot long pile of brick rubble when those burst of gamma rays radiated everything for 75 or so miles, you died. Luck played a big factor in Clark's survival. He had just went out a 2 inch thick steel door that slid shut behind him and was pulling one of the 6 foot tall metal carts, the steel door, 8 walls of 12 to 14 inch thick solid brick and cinder blocks and 4 stainless steel metal walk in coolers were directly behind him when the 1st burst of gamma rays flew through the valley at light speed. This was just barely enough to protect him from the first burst and the rubble pile protected him from the 2nd and 3rd burst.

He kept his notebook close at hand and made notes every time he thought of something. He made a plan and started to prioritize it. Going to need gasoline and diesel; some of that stuff to keep fuel from going bad at NAPA; generator to turn pumps on at go-mart – gas masks to go in houses, stop at EMT place where 4 ambulances are parked. That was next day plan. He had everything but the generator by 9am, he knew there were always lights on at Go Mart when the power went off, he wondered if they had a generator but didn’t use it because credit cards could not be processed. He entered the place and saw something he needed, a jar of 1 a day vitamins, just used my last one yesterday, he bagged them up and put them in the truck. He had never been behind the counter in Go Mart and went into the back room out another heavy steel door and there was a generator. OK where is the power panel, these people are probably required by law to mark every circuit in triplicate. They were all marked clearly pump 1 thru 4, gasoline, pump 5 & 6 diesel. The generator was plugged into a smaller box and another plug ran from it to lights. This really cannot be this simple. It wasn’t. 2 hours later after skinning the plug wires coming from that small box to the lights, he direct wired pump #1 up, he reached up and turned off the main breaker, no sense in sending power out to broken lines. He turned all the circuits in the panel off except #1 pump. Another hour later he got the generator running. The lights on pump #1 lit up and he found out there was something else he had to turn on behind the cash register to get the gas flowing, it was a switch that said pump #1 that was tied into the cash register. He tried the pump and filled his truck up, shut everything down and just sat there in the all around glass windowed place enjoying himself for the moment. He did something he always wanted to do and took that 16 foot long stick that was marked in gallons and shoved it down the hole closest to the gasoline pumps. When he pulled it out the wet mark was on 26k. Looks like there is a lot of gasoline here; I don’t think there is enough preservative in the whole state to save all this gasoline. He would eventually fill several hundred 5 gallon cans and preserve them; he did the same with the diesel fuel.

The next day he had to go in a house to find some boat keys. He was ready this time and had an oxygen mask on. The bodies had liquefied on the floor and he could imagine the smell. He left the doors and windows open when he left.

The trip across the river was anti-climactic. No one was found alive. The streets were just as big of a mess as they were on the other side of the river before he had pushed the poles out of the way.

His next big decision to make was did he want to stay in his own house or move to one better prepared to take care of him as far as heat and light went. It was the 1st of August and Old Man Winter would be here in a few months. He knew all the nice homes on the highway were hooked into commercial water and sewage and the owners had been made to remove their wells and septic systems. He would think on that for 2 more days.

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Just another story #5 - The Kroger College Boy -Part 9
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2 days had gone by and he had thought long and hard about staying here and doing what he had promised his mom. He told his mom in the urn that he would honor what he had said he would do only the 1st mausoleum would be a small one and he would build a better one next summer He had a small problem he had to take care of or he would probably die and that would not do her any good. He gathered up 12 cinder blocks and made a small box like structure angled the front of it north and left a 1 inch gap in it so a portion of the urn would be facing north. He went to the golf course almost to the top of the 1800 foot mountains and started looking for his winter housing. He didn’t really want to come here because the road would be impassable in the winter unless a person was on a snow mobile. He checked several of the million dollar homes out and found one with a really large solar system; it looked to be 4000 or more square feet. He put his mask on and entered. A big sigh of relief went over him, there were no bodies, they may have been in Alaska or someplace when this happened. Hope they don’t come home and shoot me he thought. It took him 4 days to figure out how to turn the solar system on correctly, next he worked on the well system and got water flowing. The place had propane to heat water and 15 or more cords of wood stacked very neatly under a tin covering. Must have been nice to have been rich Clark thought. He looked outside on the 5 or so acre lot and saw there was a fenced in place for a large garden and some place right by the back door he assumed for herbs. There were about 15 planters in the house with fresh dry soil in them ready for whatever to be planted add water and grow, he chuckled. The propane tank on the meter said 8800 so he assumed it had 8800 gallons in it. There was very little food, he checked the basement and gave an-Ah Ha, there were 200 or so 5 gallon buckets that were sucked in slightly and had the contents neatly stenciled on the side and top of the bucket. There was also a steel door, a high dollar one with a combination lock on it. He said time to make use of those things you learned in juvie, since you are not going to be put in jail for it.

Now that he had a place to comfortably live for the winter, he could concentrate some of his time on making sure he had snow mobiles that would run and gasoline to move them in case he had to depart rapidly. He would set up his house to retreat to if he had to leave this plush one. He entered all the other homes and most was set up for long term supplies and what he assumed bomb shelters and gun storage in the basement. Surprisingly all the houses were empty. He would never know that all the residents were in a hotel party 10 miles from the 1st detonation. He continued his preparation and even went to the hospital across the river and sought out basic medicine books, he had the time, he may study to become a medical doctor. He thought about that last thought and just said why not. The juvie detention had fixed all of his bad teeth, surgically removed his impacted wisdom teeth and gave him instructions on how to properly brush and floss. He kept it up because he could not afford to go to the dentist, until he got that partial dental program from Kroger’s and he had taken advantage of it. He had no more cavities, just some brutal cleanings from a stressed out overworked dental hygienist.

Just another story #5 - The Kroger College Boy -Part 10
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Things were looking good, his scavenging had netted him stuff he could have never afforded, and the most important ones were several DVD players that could play instructional medical videos. That’s not all they played, he had found the DVD store in both towns had a super wide selection of movies. He just loaded his truck down with library books; he would not be bored this winter. He had found the short wave set in the house he was staying in and looked at the 80 foot tall guy wired antenna and said, I need some more information. He found the owners manual and how to operate the system, because the man had kept all his literature on how to become a ham and pass the tests.

Comfort foods were next on his list; he found the electric ice cream maker in the kitchen cabinet and the diesel generator in another shed that was linked to a 500 gallon above ground tank. He wondered if the man had treated the fuel. He looked at the plastic enclosed notebook hanging beside the generator on the wall. The book said Pri-D added 4 Feb current year. Tank guage read full.

He was set now but it was only late August and it would be late October before snow fell. He had not contacted anyone on the radio, but had heard really faint voices, he couldn’t tell what language they were talking in much less if it was English.

He wanted to go shop for some clothes, but towards the nuclear detonation area was out of the question. He filled his tank and would find out how far over the mountain he could get before he had to turn back. He made it 27 miles before he ran into a closed road where the entire mountain had slid onto the roadway effectively blocking it for 3 or 400 yards. He turned around and went back and thought all about it on the way home, an off-road bike could possibly take him through the mountains on the back side of the collapse. He would look for one at the college, those college students always had motor bikes to ride in the wilderness.

He needed a larger boat to haul the motor bikes back across the river. That took another 2 days to find a suitable one and charge up the batteries. He worked over the bikes with the limited amount of pure mechanical skills he had and they both ran perfect. He set out towards the covered over road around the 6th of September. Before he left he had broken into the 4 safes that housed the (what he thought was a gun safe and bomb shelter) and found indeed they were shelters and gun safes. He familiarized himself with several of the high powered semi automatic rifles and some really nice bolt action guns in 300 Winchester magnum calibers with a scope name that was unpronounceable, Swarvoski, or something like that, but they sure were crystal clear to look through. He couldn’t decide which gun to take he had fired a lot of them, because the ammunition supply was tremendous. He liked something that was called a Car-15 that shot a 223 bullet and he really loved that bolt action 300 with that nice scope on it. He slung the 300 on his shoulder and tied the 223 to the carry all.

Just another story #5 - The Kroger College Boy -Part 10
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The road around the back side of the mountain was fairly easy, due to the tremendous amount of old deer trails; he came back to the hard road about 2 miles from where he had left it to go around. He made it 6 more miles before he had to go off road again and this time the trip was brutal. He survived it with no crash and continued back on the hard road. He got to where he could see the city off in the distance and parked the bike deep in the woods. He walked back to the road and said this is easy; there was a mile marker that said 164. He made a decision not to stay on the road but stay in the wilderness. He slid into the woods as if were a ghost and trekked towards the city. He stopped on a large rock overlook and took out a pair of those unpronounceable named binoculars, that were just slightly bigger then opera glasses and had an image stabilizer in them. The magnification said 7 X 50. He glassed the city, as it was a little warm he didn’t expect to see much chimney smoke but he did look for outdoor cook fires. He saw several and they were just where he wanted to go, right in front of Wal-Mart, those butt heads he said to himself. Don’t look like I am going to shop there today. But there are hundreds of other small clothing and shoe stores he could slip into. He knew he couldn’t carry many things, but a new pair of winter boots and some new fit Levi trousers, maybe a new winter coat. He settled down to just keep watch on the town and see how many people were wandering around; he counted about 35 different people. But they were all congregated in front of the superstore. He glassed himself an easy path down the hill where he would not have to turn his little led light on.

There was a half moon tonight and it was just like walking in the daylight for him to traverse the mountain side. He had the Car-15 with him and left the long range 300 rifle on the hillside. He had a set of made lock picks with him and an 8 inch flat crow bar if he had to be violent in getting into a place. He had driven to this town many times and had the streets and stores pretty well set in his mind. He went to a side street and entered the back of a quality shoe store, he stayed in the ware room where he could use his light and found exactly what he was looking for. He put them on for fit and found they were perfect, he put his worn out tennis shoes in the same box, put them back on the shelf and left by the same way he had entered. The next place he entered he almost had a heart attack, some one said eek. He pointed the gun towards that sound and said, don’t make me shoot you, I will leave by the back door if you just keep quiet. He started easing out the way he had come in and the voice, it sounded like a little girl voice said, are you one of Them. He said no, I don’t know who Them are, I’ve never been here before; I just need some new clothes. Thank God the voice said. He got a little bit more comfortable and said I need some Levi’s and I am out of here. She said what size you wear, he said 34W 30L. They are right on your, I think left side. He turned his light on and just let a crack through his knuckles shine on the size. He pulled 2 pair off the shelf and said nice meeting you. Good bye. The voice said wait, please wait, I am hungry and thirsty.

Just another story #5 - The Kroger College Boy -Part 11
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He told what he was sure was a female voice to come to the ware room and he could turn a little light on and they could have a short powwow (Clark actually said that). He waited on the person in the large dark room and after the door was shut he lit all 12 led lights up and what he saw was really nice. There was a petite girl with brilliant red hair, hazel eyes and lots of freckles. She had that classic pixie face with full lips that screamed kiss me. As far as Clark was concerned, she was beautiful. After he got over his tongue tiedness, he said OK we have met; what you want from me. She said those people out there around those fires have been looking for me and they are not nice people. Can you get me out of town? He said sure can, I am leaving now. Just don’t make any noise. Oh do you have clothes or anything you want to take with you, she said no just what I have on. Dang, Clark said, I can find you some things later on, but it will be a short rough trip; I hope you know how to hang onto a person on a trail bike. She gave a smile that lit the room and his heart up; yes I have ridden on a trail bike behind people.

They had to hide 3 times before they got far enough away from the city that he felt comfortable talking to her in a low voice. We will swap stories after we get 10 or so miles away from here, I have some food and water on my motor bike just in case the bike quit running and I had to hike back to where I have my truck parked. She just said I am really thirsty, he said about a mile and a half to go. They didn’t talk at all climbing up to the outlook. He just told her to rest a few minutes and we will soon be to where you can get a drink. She didn’t talk at all. He thought she was getting dehydrated. 30 minutes later he got to mile marker 164. She looked about finished. He said wait here and I’ll bring you some water. She almost drank half the 2 liter until he took it away from her. I know you are thirsty but if you drink anymore you will just puke it back up. He really had to go slow on the back side of the mountain with her on the bike. He speeded up on the road. He told her one more woods trip a short truck ride and then you can eat all you want and go to bed.

She ate a can of soup and fell into a bed in a bedroom without even washing, Clark said to himself; I hope she is not one of them girls who don’t take care of themselves clean wise. When he got up the next morning she was sitting there in her old clothes with her hair still damp from a shower. He told her to look in the ladies wardrobe in that closet over there and see if she had anything to fit her before we go clothes shopping. If you find any he said throw your dirty clothes if you want to keep them in the washer on cold water wash and we can hang them outside to dry, the weather is still nice enough for that. She came out about 45 minutes later in some fancy cut western jeans, her tennis shoes and a ladies lightweight Levi jacket. She just said really nice house, he said not mine, I just moved here to be comfortable for the winter. Oh, was the response.

The girl said this woman’s clothes fit me except for her shoes, she has Cinderella feet. She has winter clothes, summer clothes, everything but boots and shoes.

OK Clark said, what is your name and a brief version of your story, we have all winter to tell about each other if you decide to stay. But before you make any decision, it gets cold up in these mountains and I have found no one else alive for 20 some miles that way, he pointed.

She said my name is Robin and I used to work in that store you found me in. I still had the key on my keychain when somebody set off nuclear bombs. My friend and I were sleeping in her dad’s basement which was a huge one and he was kind of a prepper, I guess he made his basement to survive something like this happening. She was caught by those people by the campfire one afternoon when we were looking for supplies. I ran and hid in the store where you found me.

Just another story #5 - The Kroger College Boy -Part 12
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My name is Clark, I did work at Kroger’s and was a part time college boy when all this happened, I survived in my house basement and have been getting ready for this winter.

OK let us go find you some shoes.

Clark told her in the truck, where she was going to have to get her shoes and why she was going to have to wear a mask. She really did turn a pale shade of green. In the girl’s dormitory, she found what she needed in the 8th or 9th room and they left the area. She took her mask off outside and choked a little; she said that was nasty work. They cruised on bicycles through the 2 towns and she asked him how many houses he had been in, he said very few. Next year after the bodies dry out, it will be a little better. We have a problem he told her. She said and what is it. Those people can get to where we live as soon as there are 4 or 5 inches of snow on the mountain. Another Oh came from her.

Can you shoot a gun he asked? She said I have shot a 22 and hit the little spinner thing 10 out of 10 times from 50 yards. How about bird hunting or clay pigeon shooting; she said no; OK we have time to teach you a little bit. WHY, she asked? Well the simple answer is or the question is, do you want to be captured like your friend? NO. Well I recommend you learn how to shoot a decent sized long arm to defend yourself. The answer came back a pleasant sounding, OK.

The training began the next day. She did not like to shoot anything over a 20 guage shotgun and the 30-06 was out of the question. The Car fit her perfectly, but he wanted her to have a distance gun. He went back to the gun rooms and found several long guns that had all those holes punched in the end of the barrels and it hit him, reduced recoil rifles. It all fell into place the rich ladies did not want to have bruised shoulders after a day of shooting, ergo, ported rifles. She found a 30-06 browning semi-auto stainless 24 inch barrel with a lot of holes in the end of the barrel and that unpronounceable named scope on it. She liked it and could keep all the bullets in a man size silhouette at 400 yards using the bi pod. She said this gun has recoil just a little more then that Car .223 gun. But it doesn’t hurt me and I can shoot it well. He agreed with that. The bullet she was shooting was a 168 grain hollow point. Clark again went through the gun safes and found some pretty nice night vision and some good range finders.

As for Clark the 300 Winchester was a long shooters dream rifle especially with that super clear scope on it. He practiced with it until he could do 800 yard shots with ease with the bipod set solidly. It seemed there were a million rounds of 223 and 6 or more Car rifles; he found the long black rifle that had Colt M-16 wrote on the side and a bunch of lever selections where the safety would normally be. He took it out and shot it. WHOA is all he could come up with. He loaded a bunch of them 20 round magazines for that long black rifle and taught Robin all about it. She said the same thing he said plus she said it does not have any recoil at all.

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Just another story #5 - The Kroger College Boy -Part 13

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It started to snow just a little bit before the end of October.

They had made many trips to the 2 towns and the last one Clark had put the cover on the boat and ran the engine dry, hoping it would start next spring. They had both gone to the drug store that was left standing and picked it clean on what would be needed for a long time to come.

It was after Christmas when she came back in the house all rosy cheeked and said you were right, there are snow machine tracks on the main road. Clark had looked for an easy path down from the back side of their house that overlooked the road. They had had many, many talks on what they would do. And it came down to both of them asking, each other what we should do.

Clark said well I will go take a look at the tracks. He looked close and could see 3 distinct machine tracks all going down the mountain. He had looked at the Lacrosse Weather Technology Barometer and it showed bad weather coming. He hoped that meant snow. He had the M-16 and the 300 magnum with him. Robin sat on her snow machine with her hands near the engine to keep them warm and the 30-06 over her shoulder. They heard the loud machines coming from a long way off. Clark said to himself I hope I am doing the right thing. He told her be ready in case I miss any of them. She got a pale coloring to her face. He didn’t miss. He pushed the bodies over the 400 foot drop off under the guard rail and drove the 3 machines 50 yards down the hill to where there was no guard rail he just walked beside them until they slid off the edge and tumbled several hundred feet down the hill completely out of sight. They went home and prayed for snow, their prayers were answered. There were 6 people on the 3 snow machines. Clark thought that would put a dent in that out fit’s population. They neither saw any more tracks nor heard any machines that winter.

That night Robin made a decision to ask Clark if he thought she was pretty. He sure had not hit on her like any red blooded boy would. She wondered if he was gay as she drifted off to sleep. The next day at breakfast she asked him what she had thought about. He turned redder then her hair. He said I think you are the prettiest girl I have ever seen. I have never had a girl friend and didn’t know what to say to you. He said I am glad you brought this up, because if you hadn’t I was. They both laughed. The tension left both of them. The standard old timey normal of society that Clark had read about and tried to follow had put him at a big disadvantage when around girls of his own age, so he just went on about his business and in a mistaken sort of way bumbled along in a free sex society.

He was in fortieth heaven if there was such a thing the next morning. He really had no idea of girl and boy things, and he intended to see if he could catch up rapidly as time went along.

Afterwards they were just like 2 peas in a pod, they did everything together, stayed close by each other always touching each other, built big snow men, then tore them down as they had snow fights, life was wonderful for 2 people who were in love. They made short range plans, long range plans and discovered that on all of their lists there was one thing each had circled – a radiation detector.

Just another story #5 - The Kroger College Boy -Part 14
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The house was thoroughly searched and the lady or man’s garden notes were uncovered. Clark had to think about the 10 foot tall chain link fence around the large garden area, until he saw the quarter inch size hole fencing around the bottom. He said to himself animals, deer and rabbits. They looked at the blueberry bushes in a 12 foot wide by 40 foot area surrounded by and the top covered by the same quarter inch size hole fencing. I would say to keep birds out of the berries. They wandered through the small orchard and had another snow ball battle before racing back to the house to get warm when they both managed to stuff snow down each others collar.

The king size bed was almost not big enough to contain some of their carrying on.

Spring finally arrived. The trip to the college to check the science and geology laboratory for the radiation detectors started off. The boat was a beast to get started, but Clark had taken an extra recharged marine battery with him. The 2nd battery did the trick. They found 2 radiation meters in the geology lab beside a box of rocks that said uranium on it. He said well that figures. They went to the hospital and searched the X-Ray lab for newer models. They struck pay-dirt there. They gathered up the clip on radiation badges and the lead box they were stored in. These were dated the last year and were the kind of badge that showed the number of R beside a clear scale. He searched some more and found the instructions on how they were to be used. The clear area beside the scale turned a bright pink as it moved up through the numbers of R. He told her that looks simple enough.

They went to the small hardware store and took all the garden seeds. There was two 5 gallon buckets in the basement that were marked heirloom seeds but they were not going to open them yet. Of course Robin snatched some flower seeds up. They started 3 different kinds of 20 peppers each and 3 different kinds of tomatoes 20 each in the sun room. The little black plastic garden containers to start seeds were neatly stacked beside 4 large 50 pound bags of potting soil in of course the gardening shed. It was just about dark and they were watching the wood fire on the patio in the outdoor brick BBQ pit when Clark tapped her on the leg and said really low. Look. It was a deer that had just walked out onto the new growing green grass and was browsing. She did a cute thing and clapped her hands in a girly sort of way and whispered yea, yea, yea. Clark laughed and the deer walked back over the hill out of sight.

They talked about babies and things they were going to need. The diapers and most of the baby vitamins we can get at the hospital. There are a ton of other things we will have to get from Wal-Mart and other specialty shops in the city you just left. Clark said I have no problem killing those people to protect us. She said, but I am not pregnant yet. He grinned and said the way we are going, you will be. She lit the patio up with that smile.

just another story #5 - the kroger college boy - part 15
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He told her I am going to look over the city again. You are not going to do anything stupid, are you? He said no. He laid out what he was going to take and she said I will ride the other bike and stay back in the woods where you hid the bike the last time. That way when you do the stupid thing you said you are not going to do, I will be there to help carry off what you have taken. He thought about it for a while and thought if his bike broke down he wouldn’t have to walk so far. So he said OK. They left at day break and drove the truck where he could pull it off the road where it could not be seen from the road. They took the same trail as before. She talked him into going to the rock overlook; he made her stay back 10 feet from where she could be spotted.

He looked over the area and saw 2 fires in barrels outside the big store, but only saw 5 or 6 people. He wondered if they had had some kind of trouble and killed each other off. He slid back to where she was sitting and they had a snack. He told her I am going to look every hour just to see if there is any change. He watched a little longer the 2nd time and saw 2 people go in the store and they came back carrying some bags. The other 3 went in and came back a little later and they had bags; must be snack or lunch time. About 3 pm he watched 2 people carry some bags over to a concrete building, one stayed back with as far as he could tell a long gun. The other opened the door and threw the white plastic bags in and shut the door and put a bar or a pad lock on. He couldn’t tell, the man who had thrown the bags in body was in the way.

He said about 4 pm let’s go home. He didn’t tell her what he had seen and what he thought about there being prisoners in that concrete building. He told her I think I will go back again tomorrow and watch some more. She said you go – I’ll piddle around in the garden. He made sure she kept her rifle close by and to keep a good look out.

He didn’t leave till 3 pm the next day and she didn’t question him, he just said I want to see what happens after dark. He took the M-16 with him and a Car-15 strapped down on the carrier.

The same 5 were there when he 1st looked, so he waited till dark and ran down the mountain and came in behind Wal-Mart and watched the men from the corner about 40 yards away, he could hear some of their conversation. He didn’t like anything he heard.

He shot all 5 of them from 45 yards away where he had set up at the corner of the building. The first 3 he shot were highlighted in front of the fire and were facing away from him. The other 2 were facing him and had their rifles leaning or laying across empty chairs beside of them. He just kept shooting from right to left and shot each man center mass. There was no need for any more shooting. The last man he shot was reaching for his rifle and the 55 grain bullet went through his right arm and must have done tremendous damage internally, because the man just kept on leaning towards his rifle and fell onto the chair and then hit the blacktop. There was no place for the men to get under cover except behind a thin metal skinned burn barrel. There were 3 metal tables with umbrellas over them to keep the drug or alcohol addicts out of the sunny weather; kind of stupid of them to leave themselves out in the open like that. He had thought of there being a look out on top of one of the tall buildings and had spent an hour looking over the overlook spots. There were no lookouts.

The concrete building door was opened and the feces smell hit him.

just another story #5 - the kroger college boy - part 16
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He backed up and asked who was in there. 2 women came out and said where are those B#$#$# that did this to us. He kept his distance and said I killed them. One of them said thank you. He listened to their story and found out there were 2 men handcuffed to big O bolts in the wall and they were the women’s husbands. The ladies went and made sure the 5 were dead and cussed them and threw some things at the bodies before leaving them lay. Clark had been right there was some bad blood in this gang of people and these were the ones left alive after the murders and shoot outs. Clark searched the men and found the handcuff keys and the women went and released their really weak husbands.

Clark finally found out why the men were handcuffed, one of the women said they used us in front of our men because they thought it was funny. The women told Clark they were gathering supplies and leaving this place to move way out in the country and would not return. Those 5 men had killed several families including children that came to get some supplies and some young women and girls that they had captured here and used brutally. Clark always at a loss for words just said I was glad I could help. The women asked him if they could take one or 2 of the 5 running pick ups the men had parked over there about a hundred yards away. Clark said take as many as you want, the road going that way is permanently closed and I had to use a off road bike to come over the mountains to get here. He went back and up the mountain. The ride home wasn’t a happy one, but he and Robin could now come and gather up what they would need for many years. He had planned to use the remaining pick ups and load them up to drive to the foot of the mountain. He already had thought of a way to get the supplies up to where they would make many trips back home either on 4 X 4’s or just use the off road bikes.

He did remember before he left to have the women help him dispose of the men in a large empty metal dumpster a few hundred yards from the front doors of the Wal-Mart. They tied a rope around their ankles and drug them there with a pick-up and Clark had one woman drive the truck behind the trash bin and hung the rope over the back of the dumpster to pull the bodies up to the front edge and he shoved them the rest of the way in.

just another story #5 - the kroger college boy - part 17
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Robin and he spent 8 days gathering materials up to carry back with them to their house.
She went to her house and gathered her pictures and personal things and some of her clothes. The same principle was used to get the supplies up to the flat part of the rock over look. They gathered up several hundred feet of rope from the camping section and tied to a large tree beyond the rock over look and used the truck to pull up the webbed mesh containers they had found. The supplies were covered with plastic tarps from Lowes and they made many trips at their leisure to get the stuff back home. They thought about using a 4 wheeler but after checking the distance between the trees they found they would have to cut down to the ground a 1000 or more trees. That idea did not fly. They had a nice trail around the back side of those 2 mountains. But Clark knew they would quickly grow over when the travelling on them stopped.

They wandered around the orchard and had to look in the gardening notes to find out what kind of vine was growing on just a single 40 foot long 4 foot fence, Kiwis – They knew or thought they knew what was growing up beside the other 40 foot fence, raspberries, gold, red and black ones. There were 4 different dwarf apple trees, 4 different peach and 2 pear trees. Clark told Robin these people really liked fruit or were just amateur gardeners. They drug the light weight nylon bird netting out and covered the 2 dwarf cherry trees. She said we may as well eat some of these things ourselves instead of letting the birds, which were starting to show up in small numbers.

He asked her when she wanted to travel towards the blast area. She said tomorrow. He had to use the road scraper again and that took forever to get started because he had not treated the diesel fuel. After he treated it and the battery was charged up they had to wait another day to head down the road beside the river. They got the poles and small rock slides off the road about 18 miles to a Magic Mart Department store which was beside an 84 Lumber yard when the radiation badges they had on rose to about 1 and a half R. They turned around and said we can wait another year. This time he took the battery with a large amount of muscle work out of the road scraper and took it home with him, they left the road scraper parked under a 2 car carport and rode home in the truck. The rest of June and July was spent gathering 5 gallon gas cans and fuel preservative from the 4 NAPA and 2 Advance Auto Parts stores to have fuel for many years. They could not get to the Marina which was about 5 more miles into the hot zone where he believed he would find a huge supply of fuel preservative.

They talked about survivors and he said I do not believe we will find any towards the hot zone. It appears the mountains stopped some of the gamma radiation out towards where you lived because we have seen a large number of living people out that way. It will take many years and a lot of heavy equipment to clear and repair the roadway to make travel from your city easy to get here or there. We will go back to your city and preserve a lot of fuel in case we want to search for other people. We will have to use vehicles in that city, so it may be in our best interest to have a large supply of fuel hidden away and some automobiles that we can get running quickly there. For the moment and in the summer time we are pretty safe from crazy people if we stay here. I want to lock the big gates to the golf course and the side dirt road that leads in here with some rusty looking logging chain and old big locks that I know where the keys are. If we want to go out and not carry a lot of stuff back in, we can use the hill behind our house and ride the motor bikes down. We can also get another vehicle parked on one of those dirt roads down below here to use if we need to use a truck in case of rainy or cold weather.

They never went anywhere without a Car slung on their shoulder, he told her it just made good sense. A bear, rabid dog or heck any attacking animal could ruin our life if we were not armed.

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just another story #5 - the kroger college boy - part 18
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This time when they went to her city, they were going to stay a while and had planned on living in her house or the basement she had stayed in before and would use a generator to have power. He took a fully charged battery on the bike carrier and started a diesel pick up that he had put Pri-D in. They had good flashlights and stayed and shopped in Wal-Mart for things they would need to set up a large cache of fuel and supplies. He found a 20 foot tow along trailer and they started buggy carrying out the hundreds of 5 gallon gas cans in the store and the preservative that was on the shelf and in the ware room. This was a large city and had Go-Marts, so he checked if the same trick he had used earlier on getting power to the pumps would work. It did. When he was done gathering 5 gallon gas cans up they had put on 7 different tow-along trailers, he thought long and hard where to store them. They decided to use the roll up rental storage areas with a small twist. They were going to leave the door with no lock raised 3 or 4 inches. They finally agreed to lock up a hundred gallons of treated diesel in one and a hundred gallons of gasoline in another.

She patted him on the shoulder and asked him, why we are making this so complicated. He just said there will probably be many, many scavengers coming through this town or even some may set up housekeeping here. They may even not want us to take anything from the stores or may try to charge us with fresh food or something to enter the town. The way we have it spread out over the city, I think most of it will be pretty safe for a long, long time. They got 4 new trucks, 2 diesels and 2 gasoline, from a car dealer and stored two in unlocked and 2 locked storage areas with treated fuel in all of them. They removed the batteries and put them in another area. Then went to a battery shop and got 4 empty batteries and put them in the trucks. The acid from NAPA was stored in another unlocked area. Robin had made 2 copies of what was where and gave him one and she kept one. When it was all done 4 days later they had 1200 gallons of treated diesel and 1200 gallons of treated gasoline, 2 new gasoline and 2 new diesel trucks.

They then stored a bunch of long term foods, water filters, Coleman stoves, Coleman fuel, empty gallon water jugs in black trash bags so they would hopefully not degrade, they took another chance and stored quarter emptied gallon jugs of distilled water in several of the closed up storage areas and wondered what it would taste like after it had frozen and thawed for many years, he thought they would crack eventually and the water would drain from them. Clark took a chance and posted on the door of several stores that people would go to get supplies a shortwave frequency they could be contacted on at 6pm EST Monday, Wednesday & Friday. The name he used to contact was of course, Clark. She asked him why 3 days a week; he said, do not want to make anyone think we are anxious to get in touch with them, plus we won’t have to listen to that channel but 3 times a week for a half hour each time. The town had been eerily silent all the time they were there; he never even got a feeling that someone was watching him. They shopped for a bunch of small things and headed home, one set of keys to the new trucks were put in a ½ pint whiskey bottle with a plastic screw on cap and buried 4 inches down close beside the rock overlook and a flat rock put on top of the dirt, the other set were carried home with them and hung on a key rack marked with what they were to.

She said I never want to see an apple or any fruit again. He laughed. They had made apple pies, cherry pies, peach pies, and blackberry cobbler. Raspberry preserves, grape jelly, and blueberry jelly. Grapes, pears, kiwis, blueberries and apples had been eaten raw and put on cereals. They were now making apple butter. Clark and Robin had gone and got 4 outdoor cooking burners that hooked into propane. There were several thousand 20 pound propane tanks available and they had been using them like there would be no tomorrow. In reality they had enough for 200 years or more. It really was a month and a half of outdoor work preserving what was grown. There were 3 super large all American canners running at any given time. When it was all said and done, they realized 20 tomato and pepper plants were too much for them. They would not have to can a tomato or a pepper for many years. The cukes were gone before the tomatoes came in and that went up on the basement blackboard, plant cuke seeds 1st July and the 1st of August to have with tomatoes. They ate watermelon till they started spitting seeds at each other; that ended up in a quick shower and wrinkled sheets.

They had thousands of quart and pint jars and cases of supposedly long term lids that had been vacuum packed in Mylar bags. They planned for next years garden and became real smart after this 1st year. Some root vegetables and they finally got around to reading about those neat plastic square boxes were out in the yard. They were potato growers, the side boards all the way up and around could be slid out and potatoes could be pulled out with out digging the entire plant up. They decided not to do what the instructions called for on the blueberry plants and went and got 50 five pound boxes of miracle grow acid. The instructions called for them to put a wheel barrow of oak leaves around each plant. Instead of doing that they poured 2 gallons of Mir-Acid around each plant. The garden was fertilized with 60 bags of manure from the 800 bags at Magic Mart and tons more fertilizer was stored in car ports up and down the roadway and dutifully marked down by Robin as to location. The work was finally done and Robin said I want some fresh eggs and hash browns. They just looked at each other and thought that sure would be nice. They had 250 years of powdered eggs and dried hash browns in buckets stored between the 6 multi million dollar homes, but that tingled a bell for them to start taking this surviving stuff more serious. Fresh milk would be good too Clark said, she said, yeah right, who is going to milk and feed the cow if you ever find one. He shut up quickly about real milk. They did look on their side of the mountain for chickens, but none were found

just another story #5 - the kroger college boy - part 19
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The next morning he told Robin he was going to do something really important and personal and would be back in time for supper. He stopped on the way to his house at several places and gathered more cinder blocks and the last stop was at the hardware store for bags of mortar. He leveled a 6 X 6 foot area of dirt and buried the cinder blocks in a 2 inch deep trench. The old wheel barrow was pulled out from under the shed and he started mixing mortar to cement the blocks together in a mausoleum structure. He knew this would take a few days but he got the 1st course of blocks laid and the front of the structure pointed in a northerly direction. He went home and asked her that night if she wanted to help him on his project the next day, she asked are you going to tell me what this project is, he said no, but you will see tomorrow.

She found out after he threw 12 or 15 more bags of Sackrete (cement with sand) for the mausoleum floor in the truck. He figured the cement inside would tie the 1st course of block together for at least a 1000 years. He got that mixed up and leveled about 3 and a half inches deep he laid another course of block and they left for the day.

The next morning he stopped at a machine shop that had metal and welding/cutting torches and cut a 6 foot by 6 foot piece of quarter inch thick stainless steel out of a 8 foot by 10 foot sheet. He had to experiment for a little bit till he got the right gas mixture and welded eight 24 inch ¼ inch stainless rods onto one side, with 2 inch cross pieces on the bottom so they would hold solidly in the concrete onto one side. These rods would be dropped down into the wet cement inside the block, waterproof the top of the structure and permanently seal the enclosure he made for his mom’s final resting place. Another day was done. One more or another trip and I’ll have what I promised her mostly done. The half inch thick piece of 6 by 8 inch glass he had inserted into the cut interior slit holes in the block had been slid in before the top was on. The bottom of the Urn had been cemented onto the top of 6 cemented together blocks and cemented to the floor and was almost touching against the glass. He lay a compass on top and saw the glass opening was exactly due north. He talked to the glass where the urn lay behind and said mom, I’ll be back next summer and put a head stone right under the glass and if I can find some marble block, I’ll place them around and on top of your resting place. He glanced up at the mountain and decided she was far enough away to prevent any falling rock or mountain slide from reaching the tomb. Robin said not a word as Clark went about his work and talk. She thought he will tell me about this someday.

just another story #5 - the kroger college boy - part 20
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They checked the roadway for snowmobile tracks all winter long, no tracks. They never left the interior of the golf course that long winter and enjoyed themselves as 2 people who are compatible do. The radio was silent until March. Clark had gotten tired of reading and was listening on the shortwave when a booming voice came over the speaker. He jumped back 2 feet and noted the frequency down. He just said I am receiving you. The man asked too many questions for Clark, so Clark lied to him. One of the questions the man asked was, are any women around and Clark told him I haven’t seen a human or heard a voice in about 2 years. He lied some more and told the man he was in the rotunda of the capitol building in Charleston West Virginia. The man came back with, wasn’t that place nuked and Clark told him no, the bombs fell 25 miles away and the radiation level is down to less then 1 R now. How are you transmitting, Clark made another lie up and said I have 2 batteries that are hooked up to a solar panel and I used my small generator to charge them. My antenna is hooked up to the 100 foot one on the Capitol Dome. I see, said the man. Clark asked him where he was and the man said Montana, Clark kept looking at the strength receiving signal on his receiver and knew that was a lie unless the man was using a nuclear power plant for energy to broadcast that strongly. He guessed southern Virginia or maybe northern North Carolina. Clark asked the man if they could meet. The man said we will be there next summer, keep monitoring this channel. Clark said can we talk again soon and asked for the situation in the country. The man again said keep monitoring this channel for information. Clark said thank you for talking to me. He turned around and told Robin that was a bad guy and he lied more then I did. She laughed.

just another story #5 - the kroger college boy - part 21
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It was April before they heard anymore radio talk. They always turned the short wave on from 530 to 630 pm to monitor he frequency that Clark had stuck on the doorways in the city. A mans voice at 6pm came on the radio and just said hello Clark, hello Clark. Clark looked at the signal and saw it wasn’t very strong. He said this is Clark I hear you. The man said we saw your note and finally got some batteries charged up and are using one of those handi talkie short waves to transmit and receive. Clark knew this was possible because he was only 40 some miles from the city. Can you meet us. Clark said I sure can. Is the Wal-Mart OK? The man said we will be there tomorrow at noon. Clark looked at Robin, Well it looks like we have to get up at 5 am and watch the Wal-Mart store early tomorrow.

It was still chilly at 5am and they wore some appropriate clothes to lay on the overlook rock. There was no one or any fires visible at that early time. They saw 2 pick ups arrive at 1130 and 5 women and 4 men got out and 1 of the men went into the store and came out. These people were not stupid like the 5 men he had killed were, but in a way they were because they had not came early and staked the place out, or so he thought. He would bet a wooden nickel someone had stayed in that store all night, to catch an early sniper or a bad guy. He thought about it some more, yes – 5 women 4 men. There is somebody in that store. He picked his handi talkie up and said – Hello people in Wal-Mart lot. I am down the street from you and why do you have a hidden person in the store. I am alone and mean you no harm. The voice came back and was quiet jovial. You must have stayed here all night to catch us. We just do not take any chances. Clark said I understand, I will be there in 30 minutes. He told Robin, bring your rifle and stay in the tree line at the bottom of the hill, that’s about 300 yards, if they kill me, shoot as many as you can and go back to the motor bikes and disable mine like I showed you, and leave, they will never find you. She said well, if you think they are going to kill you, why are you going. He said we have to take a few chances every now and then. We need other people later on to survive and that baby you are carrying needs play mates.

Clark had slipped behind Wal-Mart and hollered out from the same corner he had killed the other people, I am here, don’t shoot. They all jumped.

The meeting went well and Clark found out these were good people who were farming out in the country. They had chickens, eggs and next year would have beef, pork, milk, ham and bacon to trade. He told them he and his woman were living in a solar home and had a well for water and were doing good. The talks went on for 3 hours and Clark asked them if they wanted to meet his woman. The 5 women said it sure would be nice to talk to someone else new. Clark went and got her. The meeting went on till dark and Clark found out he had lots to trade when he mentioned golden raspberries and Kiwi’s. The meeting broke up and Robin and Clark departed. 3 of the other women were also pregnant. New soon to be neighbors were only a short wave call away.



The end of Just another story #5– The Kroger College Boy

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Clark Story #6 - The Late Prepping Ex-Coal Miner

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The big grizzled looking man hit the 25 year old boy so hard on the shoulder with his fist it knocked the slightly smaller man down. The boy got up off the ground and said that hurt Pa. Next time I tell you to do somthin, don’t just stand there with your thumb up your butt and that glassy eyed dope look on your face. Yeah, OK, awright.

Clark looked at his son and shook his head. The boy had finally started straightening himself up after so many years and had settled down for just smoking pot instead of shootin that crank or coke up in his veins.

They lived in a medium size log cabin, Clark had built 25 years ago on the leveled side of the mountain up 4 Mile Hollow. The mine had blown out (shut down) 10 years ago and there wasn’t much left in the area. The game had started to come back in the area after the big coal company had seeded the area that had been strip mined, before the deep mine went in, with grass and planted thousands of quick growing trees. They had at least sense enough to plant some nut and fruit trees and the birds had brought the blackberry and other berries back from droppings. They were the only ones to live on this rutted road. When Clark had built the cabin so long ago, he had requisitioned some 4 inch schedule 40 pipe from the mines he was superintendent of and ran water from a spring 75 or so yards further up the mountain to his little piece of heaven. He had also during a mid night shift used the mines back hoe to dig the trench to bury the pipe to keep it from freezing. He had also dug the spring out to where it was 4 foot deep instead of the 8 or so inches it was before. A footer was also dug around the spring and solid cinder block cemented in to keep the mountain above it from slowly sliding down and filling in his water source. The water had been tested and was absolutely pure. Over the next year or 2 he had put some 4 foot by 8 foot 5/8 inch steel around the entire spring on the outside of the 2 course high solid block and tied it to the block with some ½ inch stainless bolts all the way through the steel and block. The block and steel had a 6 inch opening on the down hill side for the 4 inch pipe. The last thing he did was using the back hoe again was to lift another sheet of steel on to the top of the 4 standing bottom sheets of steel and tack weld it in 8 or 10 places to have a cover to stop blown leaves, dirt, birds and animals from contaminating or dirtying up the water. The spring produced enough water to keep full the 4 inch pipe running down the 60 foot drop to Clark’s house 24 hours a day.

Further on down from the cabin a 100 by 100 foot area had been leveled out and good top soil 4 foot deep, again courtesy of the coal company, was placed on the sandy clay and rocky leveled spot. Opposite the spring area, Clark had had a powder man (explosives person) blast him a 11 X 11 X 23 long foot root cellar out of the mostly sandstone ground, he made it that dimension because the 5/8 inch steel the mine used was 4 X 12 foot and 3 sheets would perfectly cover the top with a 6 inch overlap on each side. The steel was dropped onto a 6 inch wide and 6 inch deep ledge he had dug out around the top with the back hoe. The back hoe was used to make a small slightly sloped entryway back up the hillside into the root cellar. The mine had 12 foot long 6” X 6” timber to shore up the mine roof and he borrowed 6 of them. 3 went under the seams in the middle that he had welded together and 2 an a half were used for the 42 inch wide 1/4 inch thick steel door that had four 4 bolt hole hinges welded to it to mount on to a 6 foot tall 6” X 6” door frame. He mounted 2 x 4’s to the inside of the steel door and put a 2 inch piece of Styrofoam covered with a sheet of plywood to insulate it. He dumped about 4 or 5 foot of gravel and dirt over the top of the 5/8 inch steel and the interior of the cellar remained a constant ground temperature inside which at this level on the mountain was about 49 F. Good enough for the potatoes, carrots and apples he stored.

His wife stayed with him and helped him raise the boy, Joe, for 10 years until she got that rovin eye. She hooked up with one of them younger miners and they departed for parts unknown. He continued working at the mines for several more years until the company shut the mines down saying it was not productive.

He tried to raise the boy as best he could, but that must not have been good enough. The boy fell in with the wrong crowd and eventually started on drugs. All the butt whoopins in the world would not make the boy quit using drugs. Clark even spent some of his savings and had the boy put in a rehab center. He gave up when the boy got out of the rehab center stoned. Joe finally graduated high school with what Clark thought was a D- average. Clark took a huge pay cut as a laborer on a construction crew and that’s where life had brought the 2 family members. The boy had tried to join a military branch but never could pass a drug test. So he just lay around taking the odd job in town and running with his drugged out buddies and staying as strung out as he could. Clark had finally taken the small 4 cylinder 4 wheel drive truck away from the boy and totally disabled it with key components in his gun safe. He threatened to beat Joe to within an inch of his life if he touched Clark’s truck or even looked at his own small pick up cross eyed. Clark felt sorry for the boy after a week, so he bought him one of those bicycles with only one gear on it and that was called foot gear.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 2
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When the mine shut down a large 4 inch steel piped gate was put up several hundred yards above Clark’s house, leading to the shut down mine, with a big sign on it saying mine cemented closed, all metal and copper removed. The mine company did what they always do when they want to keep 4 wheelers and trail bikes out; they dug a 6 foot deep trench and then placed a 12 foot tall pile of loose gravel, big rocks and dirt on the outer sides of the inside of the gate. A person could walk over the pile of dirt or climb the gate, but there would be no vehicular traffic going in or out. Clark had one key to the gate lock. The power company came and removed the power lines from the mines down to Clark’s cabin. The other 3 houses below Clark’s house had long ago been torn down and his was the last to remain on coal mine property. When he took the superintendent job at the mines 20 some year ago he got it put in writing that he could live here as long as he was alive and he got that written in stone by the then owner who he was friends with. The coal mine property had changed hands many times since then but his original agreement had stood up to many inquires. Clark assumed if they wanted him gone, they could have had him removed. But since they had no intention of using the property and he wasn’t in any ones gun sight he was left alone. This was actually great for Clark; he did not have to pay any property taxes since technically the coal mine company owned his house. The only 2 utilities he had were satellite TV and electric. There was a quality coal/wood stove for emergency heat and the top could be used as a cook range. Clark had used the backhoe again and dug a 15 X 15 X15 foot hole with a ramp to it and filled it with coal from the mines as a long term heat supply. He saw after the first rainstorm that he was going to have to run a 6 inch or bigger pipe from the down hill side of the bottom coal storage pit to let the water drain out. That was accomplished 4 or 5 months later.

Clark usually cooked a small meal for himself and the boy if the boy was home. He noticed the boy had been home every evening for about 3 weeks. And was not eating like an elephant on steroids. He asked him about it. The boy usually told him everything he was doing and only lied to keep from getting his teeth knocked out. He said my 3 friends are in prison awaiting trial. And Clark asked, what for? They got caught hauling 8 ounces of cocaine and 12 ounces of crystal meth. Ah, Clark asked why weren’t you with them. He just said, bike had a flat on way to town and by the time I walked there they were gone. Clark thought about that for a while but decided not to say anything except, I see.

The boy had finally straightened his act up and even washed clothes, dishes and had shaved that ridiculous looking 3 inch long hair nasty looking thing under his lower lip off. He asked Clark to cut his pony tail off. Clark almost became flabbergasted. He cut the 20 inches of hair off and put it in the trash. He said could you cut my hair like yours. Clark pulled the electric hair clippers out and put the 1 inch thick guard on and started cutting before Joe changed his mind. The boy actually looked like a human again with 1 inch of hair on his head. Joe took a shower and said see you in the morning pops. Clark laughed and lay in bed for a long time thinking about this new boy of his. Just about when he was about to fall asleep, he thought there is a girl involved in this, I would be willing to bet on that.

A few more days went by and Joe asked his dad if he could get him a job on construction. Clark said I probably could but wouldn’t do you any good. The boy looked at him. Clark told him you do not have enough muscle or stamina to work 8 hours under a hot sun. Now if you would start on a little exercise program like an hour a day of lifting a few weights and running down and back to the last gate at the end of the road. Maybe in about 3 weeks I can have the boss man give you a try. Clark came home that night and the boy was asleep in his bed. He saw the weights lying in the corner and grinned. It took about 2 weeks before the boy could stay awake and eat supper with his dad. At the end of the 3rd week, he told his dad; OK I think I can do a little manual labor now.

So father and son worked on the construction crew together for 6 weeks. Finally on a Friday night Clark threw the boy his truck keys. When the boy got dressed, he told him if you come home drunk or drugged up, I will sell your truck. The boy came home at 930 pm and brought in a case of beer. Clark was again stunned. He went to sleep that night wondering if the boy was planning on killing him while he was asleep.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 3
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Saturday was usually a lazy day for Clark unless he went plinking with his 22, or just drove out past the mine and looked to see what kind of game was returning to the area.
Joe asked his dad if he had been watching the news, and Clark said of course, I even watch the BBC news to make sure I don’t get lied to too much about US and world events from the US news organizations and politicians.

Joe said I been on the internet and reading some of these doom and gloom places. Seems to me like they got the right idea about getting prepared for something; Clark told him I wanted to do that when your mom was here but she shot that down and I just never got back into it. Well Joe said, do you want to get a little bit ready for maybe bird flu or the crazy rag heads setting off air virus things or blowing up radioactive dirty bombs. Clark said let me read a little bit and we’ll see if we can maybe do a little something.

A week later Clark told his boy, them fellows got some good ideas and make a good case for getting ready for something. I am more inclined to go along with an economic collapse and then maybe somebody attacking us. Joe said, well what we going to do about it. Clark just said get ready for the worst case scenario.

He told Joe, we don’t have to build a bomb shelter; we already got one ready made. Joe said that little bitty root cellar; Clark said no, the mine. But I thought they cemented it shut. They did, but I know something most people don’t know. The center of the cemented covering is only 4 and a half inches thick and there are only 2 rebar in it to hold it together. We can make a really neat cut with a rental cement saw and cut out about 5 foot by a 5 foot section. How we going to get it stood back up when it falls out and probably shatters all to pieces. Clark said one thing at a time my man. They went and measured the sealed over cement and went back to have a brain session.

2 weeks later, they started gathering up materials to store in the mine. Joe asked his dad if he had figured out how to cut that big of a piece of cement out without breaking it and putting it back. Clark said yep. You going to tell me, Clark said easier to show you. 1st thing we need are 2 good used 4 wheelers. They found 2 good ones and Clark did a lot of maintenance on them and declared them road and work worthy, we now need a large 4 wheeler tow along cart. They started buying the recommended beans and rice in buckets amongst a lot of other things. 8000 dollars later they were ready to open the mine and store their supplies. Clark told him, Joe this will only work if we are close enough to home and have at least an hour to get inside and seal ourselves in, if not we will have to stay in that root cellar. Why not fix both of them up, just in case Joe said. We can do that Clark said, only thing is the mine has enough water and we will have to run a half inch iron pipe over to the root cellar for water and a small 4 inch pipe out for sewage.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 4
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Joe said what should we do first, that’s easy the root cellar. Clark said this would have been a whole lot easier if I had done it when I had the back hoe. Joe said let’s rent a small one. They did and the water trench for the pipe was dug in about 5 hours, they used plastic ½ inch pipe instead of iron or copper when they checked the price. A cheap sink, commode, and plastic shower were plumbed in and supplies stored. The next weekend the mine entrance was started on. They bought six ¾ inch thick 6 inch long threaded eye bolts. The half inch drill was lifted up to 4 and a half feet off the ground and two 1 inch holes were drilled through the cement then an inch or so of the concrete exactly the width and length of the O on the end of the bolt was countersunk. The bolt was run through the cement and the outer edge of the O was flush with the outside cement. The eye bolts were inserted, then the hole through the cement was filled with extremely hard repair concrete and was left to dry. Now we build us a little pulley rack above the entrance here to hold up a few thousand pounds and put some pulleys and some cable to lower the slab we cut out. Might as well drill the 2 holes in the bottom and the other 4 holes in the top; Joe had no idea what was going on. The holes were drilled and the gasoline cement saw fired up. It took 2 days and 16 hours of sawing and then a reciprocating saw with a 6 inch metal blade was used to cut the rebarb. Clark worried about that half inch lip sticking up at the bottom of the slab and decided he would have to use some metal shims to slide the slab back up over that small lip the slab was ready to be lowered to the ground. Clark slid two ½ inch thick metal things that looked like those things you put in dry wall that squeezes back on the inside wall to hold pictures up through 2 of the top holes. Clark said we will have to pull the top of this cut piece of slab out and lower it on the pulleys. We will do that tomorrow. They quit for the day. He thought about that raised lip all night and finally figured out that he would bevel the outside of it outwards till it was flush with the ground and that’s what he did. A large cement grinder was rented to do it later on.
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Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 5
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The slab was lowered to the ground on the pulleys and Joe said it is really cold in there as he felt the air blow past him. Clark said yes it is. But we will fix that coldness. They worked quickly and Clark went into the mine and came out an hour later with a grin on his face. The water has raised till it’s about 350 yards down from the entrance. I know the 14 inch air vents are working fine because the air is blowing steadily outwards from a mile away where the vents are. That air will slow to almost a stop when the door is sealed back. Joe looked at him and asked who is going to stay out here and raise the slab back up. Clark laughed and said no one; we will use the 4 wheelers inside to pull the slab back up by hooking onto those other inside eye bolts I had you put in. Ah, Joe said, I see now. Clark went internet shopping and found a 1 inch thick periscope 8 inches long and said may as well. Joe drilled another hole for the periscope Clark ordered. They left the slab laying and slowly over 3 weeks time transported supplies and cots into the mine. The slab was pulled back up and the pulley system removed from above the slab. A tire was placed against the outside of the slab and the pickup pushed it back into place. Clark thought the 4 wheelers should be able to hook onto those 4 internal eyebolts from the inside and pull it back in. The internal eyebolts had a large washer and nut on the countersunk outside, He had to cut almost 2 inches of outside protruding extra bolt off so it could be cemented over. Clark made a really watery cement paste and covered the cut marks of the slab and the bolt countersunk holes. He went back the next day and found out he could scrape most of the cement off with his fingers. He again recovered his scrape marks and they left. You would have to be within 5 feet to find their marks on the cement and the inspectors that had came, the last time was 3 years ago, just drove to about 25 feet away and turned around and left.

Another year had gone by and the economy was slowly crumbling, just like Clark had predicted. They had continued to make preparations and stored any overflow in the root cellar, the guns and ammunition they quit buying because they had enough ammunition to last them 50 or more years. Any practice shooting they just replaced the bullets used. The work they were doing was steady and they had accumulated a lot of cash and bought a small amount of precious metals. Joe started courting a luscious looking thing from town and Clark was sooo envious. He decided it was time to see if he couldn’t find a good woman for himself. He looked high and low and never found anything worth bringing home, until…

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 6
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Clark went to town early Saturday morning; he had been thinking about Cheerios for 3 days now and could not get the thought of having a bowl out of his head. He stopped at a grocery store and went to the cereal department; he reached up on the top shelf and pulled the bottom one carefully from the one on top of it. He really thought he could get it down without knocking the top box over or his other plan was to have the top box slide down into the slot he was pulling his box from. Well planned things like what he was doing seldom worked. The 22 boxes of cereal crashed down on top of him and a lady shopper who was just passing by him and his cart, he threw his hands up and stepped back a half step when his back foot stepped on the front wheel of her cart. He completely lost his balance and amidst a clutter of falling cereal boxes over balanced himself and fell backwards over her cart which knocked her on her butt. There was what one would call total silence after an event. Clark rolled over onto his knees felt to see if his back was still attached to his body and looked up a woman’s dress who had had both feet stuck up in the air and was in the process of pulling her legs down to get up. The mad rush by him to apologize and her trying to do the same thing resulted in bellowing laughter from both of them. He finally got around to looking at her face instead of that delicious body and she was really cute, one of those women who had that eternal look of youngness about them. They talked for a bit and he finally told her he had been looking to meet a good woman to get to know better. She gave him a coy smile and told him to call her when his back recovered and handed him a card. He put it in his shirt pocket and picked a box of cereal up, he decided to let the employees clean that mess up, because if they had only stacked it one high the accident would never have happened. On the other hand he would not have met such a likely lovely looking prospect.

When he got home he looked at the card, he really laughed this time. The name on the card said Ms Tallulah Bickens. He just kept on saying no one on this earth had been named Tallulah ever since that 1920’s woman who was a movie star or something. Further perusal of the card revealed she was an RN at the local hospital. He decided to wait till next Thursday evening to call and make a date for Friday or Saturday.

The date went over like the Saint Valentine’s massacre and he was the machine gun man. He also found out she just did that name thing on her cards to impress her recently deceased mother who had dearly loved Tallulah Bankhead, an actress from the early 1920’s to the middle 1960’s.

Her real first name was Tiffany. He let that name roll over his tongue that night at home and decided he liked it better than Tallulah.

They dated hot and heavy for months, finally his boy and his girlfriend met up with them in a restaurant and when the ladies went to the powder room. Joe said dang dad she is one hot looking lady. Clark said I know you want to swap. His boy’s mouth dropped open. Clark said he was joking.

Several more months went by and Tiffany and Joe’s girl friend had hit it off and they all frequently had supper at the cabin. Tiffany told Clark that the young couple was planning to get married. Clark said that’s great he had always wanted grand kids. She sidled up to him and whispered in his ear that she was only 37 and capable of having many, many children. They got started on that theory that night. There was a double wedding 3 weeks later; a week after that the only one that had a job was tiffany and she was low on the totem pole for keeping it.

The economy had really collapsed in the US and the world. Rumbling talk all over the world was blaming it on the US. 2 more cots were bought and stored on the 4 wheeler carts in the root cellar. The satellite TV remained on world news 24 hours a day and the 4 monitored it constantly. The women were told subtly to buy feminine products for a long term event. All four 4 wheeler tow carts in the root cellar were overflowing. Tiffany got laid off 5 weeks after the economy went through the toilet. War talk was constantly on the news. Clark went and locked both of the iron gates leading to his house. He removed the computer and distributor from 3 of the 4 automobiles and placed them in the root cellar. They just waited.

Clark finally told them there was enough food for 2 people for 10 years and they would have water and sewage as long as they stayed here. Power for lighting was not a problem, but running the washer, dryer and microwave would be a thing of the past after the gasoline and diesel for the 2 generators they had was used up. They had bought 4 sets of those 60 watt solar panels and 4 of the batteries that were specifically designed for solar use. They did this just to have fluorescent lighting in the house and to charge the rechargeable batteries for the LED portable lights and CD/DVD players. There were 2 large galvanized tubs and old timey scrub boards for washing really dirty clothes. They had one of those things made of plastic for spinning a small amount of lightly soiled clothes like T-Shirts and underwear.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 7
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Clark told the 2 women if we have time we can set solar panels up over the mine entry way and have two 15 watt fluorescents and a few LED lights in the mines for lighting. There are two ½ inch holes to run the wiring through to do the solar panel and the all wave antenna is already there just waiting to be plugged into the battery powered shortwave radio in the mine.

The warning came on the satellite TV, nuclear missiles had been launched at the US and wars were breaking out world wide. This is it Clark said. They got on the 4 wheelers hooked all 4 of the tow carts up and went through the gate that Clark had left the lock hanging to the mine. He locked it from the other side. It took 10 minutes to set up the pulley and 5 minutes to drop the slab. The two 4 wheelers drove over the slab into the mine and the cable was tied to the top of the slab on the ground. It took both 4 wheelers to pull it up into place and once it was up one of the 4 wheelers had to pull the bottom into its place. He had bolted 3 pieces of metal ½ inch thick 2 inches wide and 6 inches long with 2 inches sticking out on top and both sides to keep from pulling the cut out slab into the mine. The solar panels had been slipped into the waiting brackets and the wire had been pulled through the ½ inch hole to the inside. Lights were turned on and the hole the wiring had been pulled through was cemented up. The top and bottom O bolts were tied onto both 4 wheelers and stretched tight The mine was secure and air tight on the entry way side. Tiffany said oh my there is a lot of stuff in here; Clark said me and Joe worked on it for a long time. Now we have lots to do before we can get comfortable. The 4 cots were set up; a 10 foot by 10 foot blue tarp was hung up separating the 4 cots. Another 15 X 15 foot tarp was hung about 40 feet from the entrance covering the entry at that point to deeper in the mine. The 2 portable toilets were set up behind the big tarp and a 3 LED light was hung over the 2 toilets. The heavy duty trash bags to dump the toilet contents in were stacked close by. The 240 rolls of toilet paper in 8 cases were also made handy. One more thing to do Joe said, He set up the private outdoor type shower back by the tarp but on the entrance side, the water could run under the tarp towards the back of the mine. The drained shower water would not reach the standing water, because it would be absorbed into the mine floor some which was dirt and some stone, 300 or more yards away that Joe and Clark were going to use for drinking. One more tarp was hung about 5 feet from the shower so a person could get out and dress. A small table had been made for clothes to be laid on while showering. They had made a sturdy stand to put the Big Berkey filter and several more 5 gallon buckets with spigots on. Clark had made a study of filtering water and was going to use 2 to 4 ways to do it right. He had made the sand gravel filter in the 5 gallon buckets that took two days for the bacteria to grow on the upper crust of the sand before you could filter water more through it; then every hour or so you could get 3 quarts of filtered water. He had gone one step further on this filter that was used in 3rd world countries with great results. 2 inches under the sand he had carefully poured in 2 inches of fish tank charcoal and there was another 2 inches of sand under the charcoal and then the pea gravel. This bacteriological filtered water through the sand, charcoal and pea gravel would be used 1st and then poured into the big berkey filter. It was set on the same heavy duty table as the Big Berkey. The only thing Clark was worried about was the heavy metals and oil contaminants that may be in the mine water. This is why he was going to run all drinking and cooking water through both filters on the table. The single gravel sand treated water would be heated a little and put in the hanging shower bag. There were 5 five gallon buckets with spigots on the bottom that were lined up and filled with the double filter water. There were 4 no spigot 5 gallon buckets for showers using the single filtered water. It was a pain but everybody jumped in when the water was getting low and expended a good bit of effort. The water was dipped from 3 foot deep water and that meant someone had to wear shower clogs and wade out to where it could be dipped up with a 5 gallon bucket and carried back, usually one person did this and got to take a warm shower when they returned with 20 and sometimes 40 gallons of water. The big tired dolly Clark had put in the mine saved a lot of heavy carrying for long distances

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Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 8
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They had 2 really cheap throwaway radios and Clark plugged one of them into the outside antenna to listen to the local news. The radio news man was telling everyone to take shelter and go to the emergency station on channel####. I will broadcast from here until I get knocked off the air. There is a massive missile strike headed towards the US and it will arrive in 5 minutes. Please take shelter and take water with you and he started on the details of what makes a good shelter. He was right 3 minutes and some seconds later there was nothing but static. He went to the other channel and received nothing but static. That’s it the S has really hit the fan. As far as I know we should stay 5 feet back from the entry way slab for 14 days. There is a radiation detector 5 feet back from the entrance on that table and there is one probe outside that is hooked into the one beside it. I will turn them on in 10 or so minutes. The ground trembled slightly; they just looked at each other. The ground trembled 8 more times in the next hour. Some rocks fell from the ceiling and the mine made a deep creaking noise. Clark just said it makes that sound sometimes and rocks always fall from the ceiling, You just don’t want too be under a big one if it breaks loose from the roof. 2 hours later it trembled 4 more times. A few minutes after the 1st trembling of the ground, Clark turned on both detectors. The outside one was off the peg, He turned it off. The inside one read 1.1 R. He moved it back to 8 feet and it went back to zero. He just said this is as close as we can get to the outside wall. The radiation outside is horrendous and if people do not have a good shelter they will die a horrible death. Tiffany said where did you learn all these things. Clark said Joe pointed it out to me a few years ago about getting ready for bad times. We both researched a lot of preparedness sites and read a lot of post apocalyptic stories.

I don’t think the root cellar would have saved us he said to Joe unless we had beefed up inside the door with probably 48 or so solid cinderblocks, but we would have had an air breathing problem because we never did install those big HEPA filters.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 9
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The next day Clark turned the outside detector on and the radiation was down to where that meter could read it. I wish I had paid more attention to that guy who had a spreadsheet on how to figure out when it will be safe outside. I will just turn the shortwave on 2 weeks from now and hopefully some government agency will tell me it’s safe to go outside. If nobody is on the air we will just stay inside until that outside meter says zero. Clark took the inside meter back to the table 5 feet from the entryway and it barely moved up. He said we will just stay behind this 8 foot line until the inside meter says there is no radiation near the entry slab.

49 days later they were all looking at the meter attached to the outside probe. It said 4 R. Shouldn’t be much longer they were all thinking, they were of course wrong. 29 days later it read 2.5 R. All Clark was thinking, I sure hope the reading is right, he was 2nd guessing the place he had bought it from that said it was calibrated. Tempers got a little short but everyone had sense enough to know it was the close confining quarters that were the cause of the tension. Clark just told them what he knew. It is safe to go outside for a short time at 1 R, but ½ R was even better and no R he didn’t bother saying. 36 days longer and the outside meter was reading so close to O that they knocked the door down. And it did break into several big chunks. He cussed himself for letting his periscope get crushed, but he hoped he would never need it again. And there had been no radio transmissions, absolutely zilch. So much for our government taking care of me he thought. And all those taxes I paid over the years. The sky was sort of angry looking with odd colored clouds moving swiftly from west to east. The weather was warm, but it was middle July and was expected. They drove the 4 wheelers out and everyone rode to the house. The place looked exactly like it did before they went to the mine.

Joe hooked up one of the 60 watt solar panel systems up on the roof. Clark started the generator and plugged a battery charger in to quickly charge the battery for the panels; to maintain during the day. A check of the water and it was still running, the drain carried the water past the garden to the culvert below the house. There were no blockages. All the windows were intact in the house. When Joe was on the roof he noted there was no damage to the rolled out copper sheets that Clark had had installed 25 years ago. In other words there was no damage they had yet found.

Clark brought out the computer and the distributor for his truck and installed them. The battery was weak but the truck started. Joe’s truck was next repaired and started; finally Tiffany’s car was cranked up. Ellie Jean’s car would not start; it was the oldest and in the worst shape of the other 3 and could afford to be trashed, which eventually it would.

Joe drove down to the gate and had the keys, he wasn’t gone long enough to have reached the gate when he came hurrying back. Come look he told Clark. Clark got inside the small truck beside Joe and they drove to the gate. There were 5 tilt flat bed trucks with equipment on them and covered over pallets. One large end loader was almost touching the gate and a chain was hanging from the back towing clamp and was almost to the gate. Bodies were everywhere, at least 15 lying on the ground and some inside the trucks.

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