Clark Stories

[Lbox88]

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 10
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Clark told Joe to let him think about this for a few minutes. He said a few minutes later these people were going to hole up in the mine, but were a couple hours late and some donuts short. I guess tomorrow we will fire up that end loader, and back hoe and bury them across the road out of the way, if they have some identification on them, we will file it for whatever reason I do not know, but it seems like a proper thing to do. There is no sense in messing with anything this afternoon, we can get an early start and do it in the morning.

The ladies were told about what they had found at the main entry gate. No more was said of it that afternoon, sheets were changed on the beds, some stuff was removed from the mine; clothes were washed while the generator was running and hung out to dry. The microwave was used and a quick evening meal was dished up.

Clark and Joe started all the vehicles the next day, buried the bodies and drove the vehicles up to the house and parked them across the road out of the way. All the people buried were employees of the Pugh-Hathaway mining industry. Not much to say about that, all men, no women or children, last gasp for survival is what it looks like to me Clark said. There was a pallet of ammunition for the 15 AR-15’s the men had, A few thousand rounds of 45 for the 1911 45 pistols. 4 pallets of MRE’s and 6 water filters. They checked some more and on the pallet of ammunition, it said property US government. The same was marked on the MRE pallets. Wonder where they got that government stuff from Joe queried. Clark said I have not the foggiest and I bet we never find out.

Well we have a ton of MRE’s, fork lift, end loader, backhoe, 1000 gallons of diesel, 15 AR-15’s, ammunition we couldn’t shoot up in a coon’s age, more pistols and pistol ammunition then we will ever shoot and 5 flat tilt bed diesel trucks. Clark tried to be funny and said we can sell them on EBAY. He got a cold eye look from 3 people.
Clark said well it is list making time people. No sense in leaving if we don’t know what we want to look for and I bet we don’t leave till tomorrow because I believe we will all make a big list. Clark was right they hashed out things till almost dark. He said I knew those flat bed trucks would be good for something.

They left for the closest town at 7 am. They took one flat bed and Clark’s truck. The town was not empty of people it was just empty of live people. Tiffany told Clark I hate that dead smell, Ellie Jean had turned a real good looking putrid shade of green and her head was hanging out the side of the flat bed truck with long streamers of stuff hanging from her mouth and nose. Joe hollered out to Clark, I think she is going to die if I don’t get her away from this smell. Clark told him to take her home. Tiffany told Clark to go to the hospital; they have some masks that will make this smell almost tolerable.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 11
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He really could not believe it; the doors to the hospital were locked until he thought about himself locking the mine gates. He said I can get that service door open with the big crow bar I have. It took a few minutes but he got it open. The smell hit him and he again tried to make a joke that did not go over. Holy bull he said, there are many cows in there releasing big amounts of gas. He could have sworn she rolled her eyes. Get the bottle of water off the truck seat and then use your pocket knife and cut me a piece of T-shirt from the middle of your shirt. She soaked the piece she had wrung it out, slapped it on her face and ran in the door. Less than 2 minutes she used her arm to break open the bar on the front door. She handed him a couple of boxes of masks, one said something about autopsy room use. He put one of those on and she put another one over top of it. The smell was bearable, but that was probably because he could barely suck in enough air to breathe. He looked at her and said I am not going in that building until I go to the fire department and get me an oxygen tank and face mask. She said, you know sometimes you do have a decent idea.

After they got the tank on outside the hospital and had oxygen running into the masks, he asked why we are going into the hospital. She just looked at him, he said OK, medicine. Give the man a ceegar she said. They had picked up some of those neat lights the fire department has in those big boxes on the sides of the trucks. They lit the place up like a lightning strike would a dark cave.

She had grabbed a large buggy from where he did not know. She stopped in front of the door that said pharmacy. Open it, he tried the knob and made himself look bad, it was locked. She had the buggy almost full and muttered she wished she had another buggy instead of having to make trips. He had seen 2 behind another partly open door and quickly grabbed them. She had opened the fridge door and was loading insulin, why are you taking insulin; she didn’t stop her loading and said insurance. But he continued I thought it went bad if it wasn’t kept cool, It will go bad after it is punctured by a needle in a few months. If it is unopened and kept reasonably cool it will last for many, many years. The 3rd buggy she unloaded the cabinet that said narcotics, after he opened it, into the buggy. This is enough to categorize and store in that root cellar of yours. We can come back any time; I got the really important stuff.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 12
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Stop, I need a medical laptop from any of the doctor’s office, 2 of them will be enough. He looked around the pharmacy and picked the one by the desk the dead man was laying on. They decided to drive home and call it a day. She said Ellie Jean can help me log this into one of these computers and tomorrow we will put it on a shelf in the root cellar. Uh oh he said. Why what is now the matter. We should stop at the drug store and take some of their shelving. We never got around to putting shelves in the cellar.

They stopped at the 1st small drug store. Clark had to use the crow bar. There was enough light streaming in through the windows that lights were not needed. He thought about the size of the buggies and the contents and dumped the pastries off the pastry racks onto the floor. There were six 4 foot wide ones and he told her to get some twine to tie them onto the back of the pick up over top of the medicines that filled the bed. He checked the date on the box of cracker jacks and saw they were good for 6 more months; he stole 4 boxes and hid them in the cab of the truck. It was only 11am. They checked on Ellie Jean, her color was now that of a clean white bleached sheet and she had a hang dog sick look to her. She said she would soon be OK; she just always had a weak stomach on bad smell things. Clark almost asked her what happened in the bathroom after a bad bowel movement. He wisely kept his lips sealed.

Around 2pm Ellie Jean declared herself recovered enough to help Tiffany on punching the drug information they had into one of the laptops. They checked and there was enough power to run the laptop. Joe decided to put up the other 8 solar panels which would give them 120 watts. Even Clark said that would be enough to run the laptops, lights and still have enough to charge batteries.

[Lbox88]

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 13
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Later that evening they talked about the power problem and of course solar was one answer and Clark said the wind always blew on that ridge 90 yards away. He continued to say he and Joe did not have the money to totally go solar here at the cabin, 70,000 dollars was out of their reach and a good wind system ran up into more then 10,000 dollars. So they spent the 600 dollars on the 16 panels and cheap charge controllers. The batteries were expensive at around 160 dollars apiece. And that was all they could do on the power problem, until now. They talked about what it would be like not to wash clothes properly in the wintertime or use the microwave. Joe and Clark both saw where this was going, they both said OK, after we finish our lists, we will address the power problem. This is the middle of July and snow hits here around the 15th of November, usually. That may change because of what the nuclear detonations may have done to the weather patterns. So by the middle of September we will have to have something done about this power thing.

The next day Ellie Jean stayed home and was shown how to shoot a shot gun and not to go outside without it. She asked why? Clark said rabid dogs or bad people. She didn’t say anything and Clark would be willing to bet she never opened the door after they left.

They took the big fork lift and 2 flatbed trucks. They had toilet paper, but not enough to last 4 people a lifetime. They returned with enough to almost last them a lifetime, both flatbeds were completely full and the cases had to be strapped down and that took some more time to find the amount of strapping they needed. Joe said the only place we can store this to keep it dry is the mine, Clark said yes I know that. That’s going to entail a small amount of work; the broken slab is going to have to be removed so we can back right up to the entrance. Sure wish we had one of those small electric forklifts, one we could drive through that opening. Take about 30 minutes to get one from that warehouse we got the toilet paper from. Was it electric or fuel; Joe said you know I just thought it wouldn’t run so I didn’t look at it that good. Clark said I really do not want to move 1200 cases of toilet paper again. Joe and Clark loaded the small generator, the battery charger, a box of mechanic tools, 5 gallons of gas, 5 gallons of diesel and headed for the warehouse. It was electric and still had a small charge, enough to get it on the flatbed from the loading dock and tied down. Clark hooked up the charger and started the generator. They let the generator run the 10 amp charger for 2 hours and drove the fork lift off the flat bed and started moving the pallets that the toilet paper was on. Just about dark they were unloaded. Joe hooked the generator up to the battery and started charging it again. He told Clark he would come back in 3 hours and turn it off.

About 10pm Clark told Joe we need some dynamite. What for, Joe asked. It will be safer for me to blow the cap off that 12 inch pipe that they used to pump the water out to the settling ponds. Why do you want to do that? Because in about 3 years the mine will be filled up and water will be running down that hill towards my house; plus all our supplies are going to get wet from the humidity the water is going to put off. I see said Joe. Do you know how to use dynamite? Clark told him to get his head on straight. He had been the superintendent of a working deep mine and there was not anything he did not know about mine operations including explosives. What Clark did not tell him was he had been an EOD (explosive ordnance demolitions) specialist in the Army during 1976 to 1979. OK, OK, OK Joe said. I guess in the next few weeks we will make a trip to Pugh-Hathaway mining industries and one of the current or what used to be working strip mine jobs. They were on their way to bed when Clark told Joe to go turn the generator off. Ah shucks, I am getting absent minded. Clark wanted to say those drugs you used all those years have probably destroyed some of your short term memory, but he didn’t.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 14
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The next morning Joe asked him where all that water is going to go. Clark said I was wondering if you thought about that. There are several million gallons of water in there after all those years and it will take a while for it to drain out. The federal government would not let us drain the mines without having the water placed in settling ponds and then the ponds would over flow the top clean settled water out into the creek. Well where is it going to go. I’ll show you when we get the dynamite. He wished he could find C4 sure would make it a lot simpler.

Supplies were brought in for several days and the little forklift was worth its weight in gold. They gathered up some lumber to make a thick insulated gate door like enclosure for the mine to keep the bad weather and snow or a bigger wild animal from entering and setting up a den or lair. And the main reason Clark wanted a thick tight enclosure was to keep the temperature in there from freezing so they could store lots of canned foods, amongst other things that he did not want to freeze.

One week later Clark and tiffany went to the mining company to find the strip mine location on that property. He had brought large wrecking bars and some electric reciprocating saws with hack saw metal blades to break into the explosives metal containers that were always 500 yards away from the working area. He went in the main office and looked at the mine maps that were required by the government to be placed in every working mine office in the country. He found a working operation 4 miles from here. He travelled the graveled road up to the actual strip site and immediately saw the 12 white igloo type containers off in the distance. They were not igloos, just small white 8 X 8 X 8 foot iron boxes that looked like trash dumpsters that had been beefed up to contain an explosion. Now he said if this super for this site is any good he will have a small coded diagram telling me what is in each container. OK got it #3, dynamite. #7, blasting caps, #8, wire, # 11, Electrics; Dang I gotta bust into 4 of them tough little things. Let’s get started he told Tiffany, I want to get the dynamite, that’s the most important thing; I could make something up if I just had that. This was easy; there was just enough room to get the tip of the railroad wrecking bar into the pad lock. The other 3 it wouldn’t go into the lock, the reciprocating saw made short work of them. He turned the generator off and put his tools away. A wooden crate held 24 sticks of 8 inch long dynamite. He looked at it closely after he got the box lid open to see if any nitro had sweated out and beaded up on the stick. These sticks were fairly fresh. He loaded everything up and decided to take the other 3 cases of dynamite after he checked each one.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 15
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The next day he and Joe drove to the 16 inch drain pipe that he was going to blow up. He told Joe to unroll the spool of wire to about 350 or 400 yards up and around the hill and wait for him. Joe said aw come on dad want to see how you do this. Clark had already decided 1 or maybe 2 sticks would do the job, but he sure wasn’t going to come close to this pipe again if it didn’t break off. He couldn’t even begin to imagine the pressure of several million gallons of water inside this 1 inch thick steel pipe. He was going to permanently open this pipe and blow the entire shut off valve assembly off including the welded capped pipe end. He would use 16 sticks. He carefully placed each stick and duct taped it into position then he needed three 100 pound rocks to make sure the blast was funneled into the pipe. He had Joe bring them and then Joe started to ask questions, Clark answered most of them. Clark made him roll out 20 feet of wire and put a 50 pound rock on it so it wouldn’t be pulled out of the blasting caps when he pulled the spool of wire the 350 or 400 yards around the mountain side. Clark twist tied each skinned end of the wire onto the blasting caps and made a solid twist tie into the long run of wire. He double checked each of his connections and decided they were perfect. Clark decided to wait till Joe hollered he had reached the spot he was told to go to. When he got there he saw Joe had done as he asked and put the spool down and walked 6 feet from it. He hooked the wire to the battery terminal and asked Joe if he wanted to push the on switch. You could see it in Joe’s eyes, every little kids dream to blow something up. He carefully held the battery box and turned it to on. There was one Hell of an explosion from around the mountain side. Clark just looked up in the air to see if any rocks were coming his way. The rocks had blown out the way he had planned. They walked around the corner of the mountain and saw a 200 or so foot 16 inch diameter jet stream of water that looked like a solid silvery bar shooting out till it hit a small rise in the ground. Clark decided to wait and see how long it would take the jet stream of water to slice through that small solid mound of sandstone. 5 minutes later an 8 foot long 16 inch diameter hole had been punched through that small obstruction. Joe said that water is going to go down the hill into that creek across from the roadway gate and then out to the river. You got it right, Clark said.

[Lbox88]

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 16
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The 2 women were taught to shoot by Clark. They became extremely proficient with the AR15 and they always had one slung over their shoulder when they were outside. Neither of the women liked the kick of the 45 and would never be able to hit an elephant with it. Their scavenging was just about done for supplies. They had the perfect storage place which was 300 plus yards long, 15 feet wide and 12 feet tall. Everything was put on a laptop and a CD for back up. A map was generated from software Clark had and was printed out on 9 pages and pasted together on one wall. If anyone wanted to know where anything was all they had to do was look on the map or if they were lazy they could look at it on the laptop.

Joe and Clark broke into a gun store in a larger town and found some pistols for the ladies. Clark hated the 9MM bullet and opted for a .357 revolver shooting .38 lead bullets. Smith and Wesson made an 8 shot revolver in .357 and that’s what they were looking for. The women were with them when Clark broke into the light steel gun storage container in the store and found 3 of them. They were stainless, 2 had 6 inch barrels and one had a 4 inch barrel. They took all 3. The 38 ammunition was abundant as was the .357. They took enough to shoot for a year or two.

Joe said you ever reload any? Clark said I had a friend that I helped a long time ago. We really don’t need to do that because of the amount of ammunition we have. But if you want to learn how, we can set a bench up in the root cellar and I will show you how. 5 different reloading manuals were bagged up with about 150 pounds of powder. The bullets were in bags of 100 and Joe took a ton it seemed like to Clark.

Joe said I want a really long range gun. Clark asked him how long range. Joe said a mile. Clark chuckled and said you need a sniper rifle in .50 caliber to shoot that far and a whole lot of training. Clark continued by saying now 800 yards is a purt far distance. Joe said almost half a mile. Clark said yep. If you don’t mind your shoulder being destroyed with every shot, that 338 there will have a huge amount of killing power out there, but if you want to tame it down a little the 300 Winchester magnum with a 24 or 26 inch barrel will kill a human just as good at 800 yards as that 338 and it will only hurt half as much. I haven’t read too much about it but I think the military is using a 340 or a 440 can’t remember which it was in a semi automatic and I believe it has either a recoil buffer to absorb all the recoil or some type of porting or suppressor. You can probably find all that information in some of those reload manuals and that Guns of America book right there on that shelf. Take one of each; they may have some good reading in them. Clark got both of the women a 20 gauge browning semi-automatic shotgun, a shoulder strap, lady looking bandoleers and a butt stock shell carrier for each. Pistol holsters, web belts, leather belts, and shoulder holsters were picked over. All in all Clark’s truck was almost down on its overload springs as well as Joe’s little truck. There were 3 different turret press type re-loaders, powder scales and just about what any re-loader could ever dream of having was taken to the root cellar. Clark lost track of the rifles and scopes Joe loaded into both trucks.

All Clark could think is Joe is going to have a big job unloading all this stuff by his self.

Joe had to come back to the gun store the next day he had forgotten to pick up rifle cases for his 20 some rifles he had acquired. He was ashamed to admit it to anyone but he had also forgotten rings and bases for the scopes.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 17
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It was the end of July and they could not put it off anymore. The power situation was thought about and talked about for 2 days. Clark knew that untreated gasoline and diesel would eventually turn into a not usable product. So they treated everything they had including the 1000 gallon diesel tank that had been towed here by the dead miners. Next they looked for wind power and used the yellow pages. No luck there. They had a pretty good idea they would be able to gather enough solar panels, batteries, inverters and charge controllers to carry them through many years. Clark was adamant that the wind blew 24 hours a day on that hill and would eventually be their sole source of power 30 years down the road. The solar panel search began and enough were found quickly. The location of them was written down and the new search for wind power began.

The highways were remarkably clear, there were no traffic pileups. Anyone driving more then 2 miles away from his shelter during the time of the threat was insane. Very few car crashes were noted as they made their way to a windmill factory 190 miles away.

They got to the wind power factory that afternoon and with the help of a crowbar, entry was gained. They looked at the information in the lobby and the models displayed. Clark said here is what we want. 10 of them will easily fit on the flat bed. They were the slow speed model that was capable of generating 1500 watts in a 30 mile an hour wind. Clark said that wind is constant at 15 to 20 miles per hour coming down from that funnel those 2 mountains created. The blades were 60 inch long carbon fiber and the system weighed less then 30 pounds. I see there are some extras that can be bought Joe said. Clark said that’s how they used to get all your money. On 2nd thought Clark said let’s take 20 of them, if one or 2 break we will trash them and put new ones up. I figure if we put 4 up and get solar batteries and some good charge controllers and inverters we will have an abundance of power to mesh right into those solar panels we are going to put up. It says here we need a 1 and a half inch steel pipe. We will use 2 and a half inch pipe and do it right. Ah, we need cement and outdoor electrical wire. That can be picked up at Lowes. The 20 units were loaded onto the flat bed and they started looking for the battery shops and solar outlets. The solar outlet was found first. This will save us a bunch of work Clark said. We will just take new solar panels and we won’t have to take the ones off those dead people’s houses. They found some really nice charge controllers and inverters. Clark said let’s take 20 panels today and stop at battery world and get some batteries. We will have to come back here and get the rest of those wind mills and solar panels; store all the extras in the mine in case we have to fix someone else a new house up plus we will have enough spares to last us our lifetimes. Clark showed Joe how to wire the system up after the windmills and panels were installed. They had to build a solar battery box out back where the used to be city power came into his meter base. Clark put a small vent with a small DC fan blowing warm inside air into the battery box because he knew warmer batteries produced more electricity then frozen ones. It was about the 12th of August and Clark sent Joe and Ellie Jean to the state road department to bring a road scraper and several dump truck loads of gravel to put his road back into good shape. That took several days and he had a good laugh when he saw that Joe had trained Ellie Jean to drive and dump the gravel onto the road. Joe ran the scraper and Clark ended up with a really nice smooth road that would probably be good for 30 or 40 years. He thought the main highways would hold up well with no heavy trucks pounding them to pieces. Clark had Joe dump 2 dump truck loads of gravel at the end of his roadway almost too where they had buried the miners. He would keep that close by in case a hole or a rut formed so he could repair it.

2 more trips were made to the wind mill factory and solar business. They stored everything in the mine. He walked down to where the water used to be and saw it had drained down 2 or 300 feet from where it was while they were hunkering down from the radiation, He had made sure there was a 5 foot drive/walkway in between the stored goods and he saw he had about a hundred more yards to go before he came to where the original water was. Joe had put a new solar panel and two batteries to run the string of LED lights he had ran down the center of the mine. The place was well lit up. Clark put a switch on the LED lights right where a person entered the new door to turn the lights off when no one was in the mine.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 18
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Almost the end of August the temperature was noticeably colder then what it was supposed to be. He gathered everyone up and they took a flat bed truck to Lowes with the list he had made. The materials for making 2 decent size green houses were put on the truck and the 4 constructed 2 green houses on one end of the garden. The frames were cemented into a small footer and instead of roll plastic Clark used 1/4 inch thick plexi-glass with a 6-12 pitch roof to keep the snow from accumulating on top. At the house of glass he cut real 1/4 inch thick glass to replace the plexi-glass in case of a failure or the plexi-glass glazed over and slowed the sun ray penetration down. He just could not figure any way to easily heat the structures to keep stuff growing all winter long and he would think about that this winter. But he would be able to stretch out a summer garden and start a real early one. The shelving was installed about the 15th or so of September and it was unseasonably cold at night now about 36 F or thereabouts. More preservative for gasoline and diesel was found and gasoline station tanks were treated for future use. The women sent Joe and Clark out to cut much more wood because they liked to burn wood during the day time. It was OK for them to bank the stove at night with coal because it was a smart thing to do; no one had to get out of a warm bed to feed wood to the fire.

Clark told the other 3 we have to find some more alive good people. We could probably live here till we die without meeting anyone else, but that’s just not how society thrives. Joe, after while go bring the shortwave radio down here from the mine and I guess tomorrow we will go to radio store and get a large antenna with the cable/wire and probably a better receiver and a transmitter. We have just been too busy gathering stuff to survive the coming times. If this winter is going to be as bad as it is shaping up to being, we may have to bring a snow machine or 2 here and we should think about snow shoes and some extreme cold weather gear, like boots and clothes. They just stared at him.

The new short wave and transmitter were found at a specialty store that carried HF short wave radios. A 75 foot antenna that a person screwed together and attached guy lines to were loaded; and a large spool of cable to run the signal to the house from where they would cement the antenna base into the cement block the bolts protruded from was loaded up. They already had several pallets of cement from Lowes on a flat bed that was covered in plastic wrap. The ATV shop was searched and 4 new Polaris snow machines were taken. Next stop a mountain hiking store was searched for extreme cold weather clothing and boots was entered and everyone did their own personal clothes shopping. It was dark when they got home. Clark had thought about keeping the greenhouses warm and picked up 4 new kerosene heaters. He had read that kerosene was indefinitely shelf stable and the local gas station had 4 or 5000 gallons in the tank. He read on the kerosene heater how much it would burn in a 24 hour period and whistled out loud. 50 five gallon gas cans were filled and stored by the green house under a small shed that had an extreme slope on the roof.

4 days later in 45 degree weather under overcast skies, the forklift, back hoe and a pickup truck were used to raise and steady the antenna. Clark and Joe hurriedly bolted it to the cement base that had the ½ inch bolt studs sticking up. The guy lines were stretched out to the other 4 in ground cement bases and bolted down. They used a cranking type wrench to tighten the guy lines up. The antenna had been installed. Tiffany pulled the cable to the corner of the house and Joe single wrapped it to the bracket that was used to secure and lock the cable down. A half inch hole was drilled under the eaves and the cable was snaked in and down to the back of the shortwave set. Everyone read the instructions. The radio was turned on and Ellie Jean started the slow search through the bands for some talking. After an hour of searching there was nothing but a low sounding static sound. No one said anything for a minute or two. Clark said well we can all search the bands when we have time. I know for a fact with the amount of warning the country had before the attack there are hard core survivalists holed up all over this USA. That doesn’t include the shelters the government had for those idiots that got us into this mess in the first place.

[Lbox88]

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 19
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Every thing had settled down and was kind of normal. Clark told them he was going to save this job till the dead of winter for us to have some work during the cold time. But we may as well gather up the material to do it and practice doing it. Tiffany said well, is the brilliant one going to tell us what the job is and what we are going to gather up and practice on. Clark chuckled and told them we are going to get the shrink wrap machine from Lowe’s if they have one or that big warehouse we got a lot of pallets of canned food from, I know there is one in that place, I saw it. Then we package up a lot of our stuff that may rust in the mine and in the root cellar. I am not sure what will happen if we vac pack those pallets up with the moisture in them But I do know you can put 4 or 5 steel wool chunks in a partially open plastic baggie or even wrapped in cloth and that will absorb all the moisture.

Instead of using extension cord that would get tangled under foot, Clark and Joe ran a 900 foot long piece of 12-3 guage wire (Lowes had plenty of free wire and receptacles) down the top of the center of the cave and attached it to the 6 X 6 cross members that helped hold the roof up. Every 24 feet they installed a wall receptacle. The wire running outside had a male plug on it to plug it into the female receptacle on the generator. Clark thought we may as well do this now instead of later. He then used the power poles that were left by the power company to run 4 strand 6 gauge wire from his house to the mine for future use if any. They could now take the shrink wrap machine which was sitting on a 4 wheeled dolly from Lowes up and down the center of the mine and plug it in to a convenient receptacle. They experimented and learned how to use the machine. It was now ready for a blitz operation whenever they felt the need to work.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 20
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Today was the 25th of September and snow flakes were falling lazily from the overcast sky. Clark said we are going to take all of our old automobiles including the broke down one of Ellie Jean’s and trade them in on a useful new small 4 cylinder, 4 wheel drive diesel and gasoline engine pick up. I hope we can get new computers and distributors for the gasoline engines and I hope the diesel computer systems have not been damaged – The dealership should have what we need and I will replace parts that were damaged by the EMP. Then we are going to get each of us a new 8 cylinder diesel pickup. All of our new automobiles will be parked in a line right across the road behind the flat beds. There is plenty of room. Clark used his pickup and towed Ellie Jeans car to the truck lot. The generator and battery charger were still in Clark’s truck in case they needed to put a charge on a low battery. He had no intention of doing all that work so he had the jumper cables ready. Everyone spent a long time picking out their future lifetime 2 trucks. Clark being the manly man he was picked a new camouflage colored 4 cylinder King Cab Toyota. Everyone else picked a standard 4 wheel drive with bucket seats. He had looked at the gas mileage on the sticker his got and saw it was 6 miles MPG less then the ones the other 3 picked. He just said to himself I will put a cross over gas tank in the bed of mine and if I need more hauling room I will get a small tow-a-long trailer. He worked for 3 days changing computers and distributors on the autos that did not run, surprisingly 6 of them needed nothing but a computer and the other 2 just ran as if nothing had happened to them. They parked all the autos across the road from Clark’s cabin and had supper. He told them at dinner when the gasoline and diesel we have treated is gone, it will be bicycle time. So in order to save fuel we will get us a small 250 CC or so size motor bike, preferably an off road one because of the gravel on our road. Joe tomorrow we are going to put some 15 foot high poles on each side of the road, on this side one, 2 the other side and make 2 nice boxes with tight fitting doors. We are going to run electricity to the other side of the road and in those boxes will be a hundred foot extension cord and a battery charger. That way we won’t have to be running 200 foot of extension cord from the house to charge up those batteries in the spring in case we get snowed in and cannot get to them to start up. Joe said that’s a good idea but why don’t we make a quick trip to that solar panel place and get 20 or so of those solar panel chargers that lie on the dashboard and plugs into the cigarette lighter. Clark said to himself, dang the boy has a brilliant idea and if I recollect it’s a first one.

The poles were set up in a small cement filled hole that Joe had to dig with a post hole digger and mix the cement, Clark just told him you don’t have to mix the cement up just dump it in the hole, water it down and use this iron pipe to mix it all up. Then we will level the poles out. They had to use 10 foot treated 4 X 4’s and bolt the other one onto the top of the one cemented into the ground to get the 15 feet height that Clark wanted. Joe asked him at supper the next evening why he wanted the poles to be 15 feet. Clark said so you can drive a tractor trailer under the wire. That got everyone’s attention. They asked about the tractor trailers and he just said it is part of some long range planning he had been thinking about.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 20
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The next day they went to the solar place and got the solar battery chargers. Clark had Joe stop at the battery place and looked over their chargers. He had read about desulphating type chargers and he was going to bring several home with him to take care of the large amount of batteries they were using. They made it back as large snowflakes fell merrily to the ground. The snow didn’t stick so they went and got the motor bikes and stored them in the mine for next summers use. Ellie Jean said why don’t we get some bicycles with baskets on them to ride in the mine, It is a long walk back to the end of the supplies , plus it would be quicker to get to something instead of wasting all that time walking. The bicycle shop was visited and 8 bicycles were taken with many spare tubes and tires. As Clark was walking around in the bike shop he noticed some really fat tires on some bikes and he thought they would be better for riding around on the mine rough floors. He thought about whether they would be good enough to travel on the gravel on the road. He would try one, but he thought it would be too much of a pain to ride the bike on the gravel. He kept on looking and said why I never would have dreamed of it. There were bikes with battery power; of course several went on the flatbed with extra batteries. There were gasoline powered ones, but he thought the fumes would be too much in the cave unless the door was wide open. Several of those went on the big truck.

Everyone wanted to ride a bike, but it was to cold outside, so they went to the mine and raced up and down like teen-agers. Clark put a stop to it by saying you get a flat – you fix it.

There was 1 inch of snow on the ground and Clark bundled up to check the 70,000 acre mine property out beyond the mine. Deer tracks were here and there, bird tracks were everywhere. He saw what everyone would take for granted was dog tracks. But he knew they were coyotes. He had not made his mind up whether to kill them off whenever he spotted them or he had plans to poison them with a slow poison to let the small game and deer repopulate the place. The coyotes would always be here and there was no way he could kill all of them off, but he made his mind up to put a dent in their population.

He returned home and drank 2 cups of fresh coffee before he said anything. Tiffany who was at the radio during her turn said I hear people talking in English, but they sound very distant. She wrote the frequency numbers down and just kept on scanning. Clark asked if she could understand them, she said no. He told everyone what he was going to do about the coyotes and of course Ellie Jean said something a sheeple would say. I don’t think you should harm those nice animals. Clark said well if you ever have any kids and they want to eat when our stock pile is gone, what do you think they will eat. How about coyote meat or would you prefer birds, rabbits or deer; He told her bluntly the coyotes will kill all the small game within a 100 miles of here and then start eating each other or attack a human – granted this is in the future a little bit, but I plan to give the small birds, turkey, pheasant, rabbits and baby deer a chance before they are slaughtered by that nice animal you referred to.

Everybody but Clark went to bed mad that night.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 21
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What Clark had not figured out yet was most people who sheltered in only had supplies for 60 or 90 days. This was not sufficient for the 4 months of lethal radiation that lingered. They had to leave their shelter too early for a resupply and died of radiation poisoning. There were several thousand survivalists who had really prepared for a long term stay and had the radiation detectors to tell them when it was safe to come out as Clark did. Most people who sheltered in the basements of city halls had to leave after 14 to 21 days, they all died. A lot of government shelters were only for 30 days, they died. Basically what it boiled down to was there were less then 1 million people alive in the US and finding each other would take a long time. There were no gang members or tough guys roaming around they all died. Some people in prisons who had not been radiated died of starvation or thirst when the electric quit pumping water to their cells. The US was a vast un-peopled place and times of loneliness would grab hold of a bunch of them who needed to be around lots of different people. The small mom and pop survivalists who had young children would do well. They also realized they had to make contact with good people to have a community and mates for their children.

Tiffany told Clark she was pregnant, he asked the most stupid of all questions, and how could that happen? She hit him in the stomach and made him bend over. He just grinned after he almost puked. She told him I am 38 years old and we will have to be careful on my first child birthing and OH heck just lots of things we have to be careful of.

Clark had gone to Lowes and the veterinarian’s office to get the stuff that was on the shelf that said poison, cyanide is what the bottle said. He got the poison to start killing coyotes. He used canned spam and canned beef to bait the animals and after 3 or 4 days he put the poison in the replacement meat he put out. He saw no more tracks of the coyotes while the snow was 3 or 4 inches deep. The snows came hard and furious after the poisoning, the temperature dropped into the minus 30F which had never happened here before.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 22
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The quilts that they had brought home were doubled up on both beds and long johns were worn by everyone in the house. The stove was burning wood at a furious rate and Clark just told the women we will have to use coal, the house is not staying warm enough for us to stay comfortable. For the next 5 months coal was burnt in the stove and the house was almost toasty. When Clark had built the house he wanted a tight one and he made sure when the 8 inch thick trimmed logs were set on the footer and placed on each other upwards that he personally caulked each log, the air movement was not the problem, it was the cold, it just seeped through the logs as if they were not there. The coal stove kept the cold at bay and life in the house went on. Movies were watched; clothes were washed and hung in the empty bedroom with the door propped wide open so the heat from the stove would dry them.

The microwave went kerplunk in middle January. Clark made Joe put on snow shoes and go get one of the 12 extras from the mine, as Joe went out the door Clark said take a snow shovel so you can open the mine door. The snow was 5 feet deep. Clark had a secret grin on his face and he did not tell anyone what it was about. The bottom foot of the solar panels was buried in the 5 foot of snow which was still falling and the sun had not shone in 14 or so days. But the 4 wind mills he had put up were twirling like there would be no tomorrow. And the windmills were supplying 4 to 6000 watts of power to the batteries and the house continuously. He had done some devious wiring and switch installation from the windmills and could divert all the power to the 2 most important things in the house separately, the microwave and the washer.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 23
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Tiffany started teaching the 3 what she knew about birthing and all the things that could and probably would go wrong. Her luck was really bad she told them and as soon as we can get to the hospital there are some things we need to get from the operating room supplies. I will show you how to use everything I learned when I worked in the OR during births and some other things bout sewing up a human body in places that you would not normally think of. In general I will try to give you all my limited medical knowledge in case something happens to me. No one said anything at that final remark.

It snowed till April the 10th. That was the day a person was supposed to plant in the garden, but there was 8 feet of snow on the ground. Clark went the day it quit snowing and had Joe help him remove the snow from around he greenhouses. Plants were started and a constant watch was kept on the kerosene heaters and the temperature inside the grow places.

They wanted fresh vegetables and lettuces, many things were started growing and a careful watch was kept on the sprouted plants. They now had abundant power and Clark turned the normal day light screw in fluorescent light bulbs on over the growing plants to supplement the weak rays from the sun which were blocked by a grayish overcast sky.

The end of May the snow finally melted away but the air temperature was still in the low 60F range with night temps 40F or so. The motor bikes were in constant use now looking for things. The hospital had aired out enough, thanks to Clark and Tiffany leaving the doors open. Tiffany had taken 95% of the liquid medicines and stored them in the root cellar. Several drug store pharmacy contents were also stored either in the root cellar or the mines to keep the liquids from freezing. Clark knew that after that long freeze during the winter any bugs or eggs in rice, beans or long term dry goods had been killed. One tractor trailer was started up and the fork lift was put in use loading all the long term dry goods into the trailer. When it was full and a list was made of the contents. The doors were sealed and it was parked on the flat area in front of the mine entrance. About a month later there were 5 tractor trailers fully loaded and parked by the 1st trailer.

[Lbox88]

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 24
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Ellie jean made the announcement she was pregnant. This put a rush on Tiffany to get the equipment from the hospital for any problems that may happen during her birthing. She was due sometime in the next 45 days as far as she knew. She made Clark set up a fully screened in top waterproof outdoor yard tent and put a bed in it with tables, chairs, lights and the equipment for the coming birth. Everyone stayed close by and waited. The birth was a simple and easy one for tiffany. A baby boy looked normal and healthy. Only time would tell if it was mentally straight and had the dry sense of humor his dad had. Joe said, dang pop I got me a brother who is 27 years younger then me. Clark laughed at this and told him well he better not grow up like you did. Joe said I’ll strangle him myself if he starts acting like I did. The mattress was taken to the dump and burned. Since Ellie Jean would have her baby in the dead of winter. The material in the outdoor tent was stored away and they used the screened in tent to hide from the mosquitoes the rest of the summer.

Clark had Joe help him line the walls and ceiling of an empty trailer with 8 X 8 foot cedar panels. He picked up several pieces and leaned them against the wall for the time being. Joe said what is that for? Clark said not yet, He put a 1 inch steel water pipe all the way down both sides 5 feet up and 2 feet from the wall. He hung another from the ceiling. On the back wall he built wall shelves 12 inches deep and spaced apart12 inches to the ceiling. OK, Clark said this will be our life time wardrobe. We will empty the department clothing stores of good functional clothing, put them on plastic clothes hangars and section the trailer off for each person. The back shelves are for boots, shoes, socks, T-Shirts and under shorts. When we have what we need and have everything hung, we will put the loose pieces of cedar panel on the floor. Neat, Joe said no moths or bugs. Correct, Clark said. But we are not done yet we need one more for the baby clothes and a 2nd one going up through adulthood. The shoes will be a problem so we will have to just take 2 or 3 department stores and a big boot stores contents and that will be a separate trailer all by itself. Why are we doing this now? Clark just told him the ceilings on some of those stores will collapse and another reason is the dampness will mildew all the clothes and leather shoes/boots. Ah, Joe said. When we get the trailers full I am going to do something I always wanted to try. What’s that dad? We are going to that Rhino Tuff place and get one of their sprayers and spray the tops and sides of these trailers with that Rhino Tuff stuff; should make the trailers last a hundred or more years.

He thought about the plastic coated diapers and decided they would be OK in the mine.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 25
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That night Tiffany heard a woman on the radio asking if there were any people listening on this channel. She didn’t ask anybody, she just said hello I hear you. The voice came back, thank God. We have been broadcasting on many channels for a year and have not gotten but 1 response. The people we have been hearing from a long distance possibly cannot hear us, but we can hear them asking if any one else is monitoring frequency ####, Tiffany wrote it down and told the lady we have a powerful radio and transmitter, maybe we can contact them. Please try. Tiffany told them the name of the town where they were but not where the cabin was. The woman came back and said we know where that is. There are 14 of us, 6 babies and 4 couples. A big grin came from everyone when they heard that. A dialogue was started and plans to meet before snow came or at the latest next spring.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 26
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Everyone started talking at once, Clark let them prattle on. He said I sure am glad they are willing to move here, I wasn’t ever going to move after we are just about set up.

He told Tiffany that Ellie Jean and Joe would probably want their own place now that a baby is coming. We can move a brand new trailer or a double wide here if they want a trailer. All I can say is it would be too much work for the 2 of us to build a stick framed house or a brick home. There is enough water here for 2 families. The septic system was designed to take care of 8 homes so there are a few things already taken care of. 4 more windmills and some solar panels would set them up. Joe and Ellie jean went to look at trailers.

That night Joe said Ellie Jean doesn’t like trailers because the floors bounce when you walk on them. Clark laughed and told him he would take care of that problem for her. Joe asked how? The trailer you were in was a display model and was parked on its rubber tires. When the footer is laid and cross wise cinder blocks are placed under the trailer so the steel beams rest on the block, the floor will be as sturdy as the one in here. Joe ran to tell her He came back with a smile on his face and said she really liked the double wide display home, it had a wood stove in the center of the living room and was set on one of those really pretty light green marble pieces. Clark said you will probably have to change the wood stove out and put in a wood/coal combination stove so you can burn coal in the winter. Joe agreed with that when he remembered how cold it was till they started burning coal. Joe said how about using all your coal. Clark said well one day while I was out on my 2 million horse power motor bike I stopped down by the rail road tracks and there are 61 rail cars fully loaded with the same coal we been using here. Joe thought and made a stupid remark; I bet that would last a long time. Clark punched him on the arm and said one rail car full of coal would last 1 family 300 years. One more thing, there are 6 barges tied up at the coal loading dock that are also full. Joe didn’t say anything. Clark said 3000 years for one family on a barge load of coal. Joe kept very quiet. That reminds me Clark said we have to go down to the barges and make absolutely sure the barges are tied up extremely well. We will probably need to use some heavy equipment down there and hook up some 1 and a half inch steel cable to the barges and the loading dock cement tie-offs. When the cable rusts away 500 years from now I don’t think I will be here to worry about it.

Clark was wrong on how many trailers he was going to need for clothes, shoes and women’s things. The women filled 1 trailer completely full for just themselves. Clark almost giggled at the thought of where in the world or when in the world are they ever going to find the time just to put that many clothes and undies on. He just went and got the trailers, fixed the insides up and let them load whatever. He snidely said one day I hope you 2 girls are writing down the color of these things so you will not have any problem color coordinating your daily outfit. He laughed and turned around to go when a large boot hit him in the back of the head almost knocking him down. He rubbed the sore spot gingerly and said some day I will learn to keep my big mouth shut.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 27
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Clark and Joe took a day off and went to look over the mine property. Many deer were seen herding up near the bottom of a distant mountain and turkey were everywhere, Clark thought that little bit of coyote killing I did last fall must have done a whole lot of good. Clark said now the real reason we came out here. He threw a bucket to Joe and said watch for snakes. They picked almost 2 buckets of black berries. They drove to where the apple trees were and he ate one. He said 2 more weeks before the apples are ready. They looked at the hickory trees and watched squirrels run through the limbs. He told Joe there used to be a butternut tree down along that ridge; I think its still there. It was and they tested them and they were ready for picking. They loaded another bucket full of nuts and headed back. He said I am sure that cherry tree is not ripe. We will have to check on that a few days from now. We will surprise the ladies with a turkey as soon as it gets a little colder. One more thing Joe, there always were fish in that really large creek fed pond. So we can have a little fishing fun when we check on the cherries.

Before any trailer was moved across the road to where Joe had decided to move his soon to be moved double wide trailer. Lots had to be done. Clark had to use 3 or 4 half sticks of dynamite to remove some pesky sandstone that the backhoe could not level off. They had to go to another Lowes and get some sewage pipe and a bunch of other things that the local store did not have. The trench was dug across the road and the sewer pipe, water pipe and the electric line which was in a 4 inch sewer pipe, so any other line could be pulled to the other side if they ever needed one. The trench was about 4 feet deep, Joe asked why so deep. Clark said so the pipes don’t get crushed if we run some heavy equipment across it. They took down the pole on Clark’s side and ran the electric line for the battery chargers through the pipe and the road now had nothing across it. Clark made a joke or he thought he did. He told the family that night at dinner that now that the electric line was removed from across the road, they had room to move a large upright missile up to the mine. No one even looked at him.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 28
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Joe caught so many fish he wanted to keep that Clark threatened to beat him if he didn’t throw most of them back. He said we can only eat so many and I would rather have a fresh fish then a frozen one. Plus, why would you want to fish the pond out he asked. Joe had no answer. They took enough fish back for several large people to eat for 2 days. They ate the fish. Joe asked when they would start taking the double wide trailer apart. Clark said after I have thought of all the things we absolutely have to do before we move it. I have only moved single wide trailers before a couple of times. I am sure if we drive slowly the 15 miles on the highway we won’t crack the walls or damage anything. You better make absolutely sure the measurements on those outside beams that run long wise are perfect for the trailer to sit on, because we have to have the outside block and the center block on the footer before we do anything.

It was starting to get cold when they finally had the water and sewage in place and the electric lines ran. They started to take the trailer apart. That was a 4 day job. They moved one section at a time and drove it back onto the waiting concrete blocks. They like to never got it centered so they could bolt the 2 halves together. 8 days later the trailer proudly sat in all its glory on the cinder blocks. Now comes the hard part, Clark told Joe. You are going to crawl under that trailer and lay the crosswise block one at a time and I will mix the mortar up for you to lay the block up on each other. That was a 5 day job and Joe almost quit 12 times. It was around 38 degrees when the electric was turned on. The 4 extra windmills had been installed and were spinning away in the wind. The 12 solar panels were on 6 foot racks and angled at 40 degrees or whatever the degree was for this section of the country in the winter. A battery box had been built and placed where the electric company would have hooked into the meter outside behind the power box. Clark made Joe put a small DC fan and cut a hole under the power box to blow inside warm air onto the batteries. The fan was turned off during the summer. The water had not yet been turned on. The trailer had power and for all practical purposes was ready to move in. Clark said not ready yet. Need a big pile of coal and a big pile of wood. Joe just cussed for 10 minutes, muttering this is more work then an Alaskan sled dog does on that 1000 mile run. Clark knew he wasn’t going to burn much wood when it got cold, so he helped Joe cut a humongous amount of maybe 8 cords of wood, a lot dead but mostly live oak. They had a gasoline log splitter and Tiffany and a not so big bellied Ellie Jean split the big stuff up. They just used their feet to roll the fat 18 inch logs over to the horizontal splitter and kicked it into the center where the splitter did its deed. They kicked it out because they surely were not going to stack it. That was man work and they giggled at the pile of split logs Joe and Clark were going to have to stack under the aluminum covered wood shed.

There would be no meet up with the new families this year that they had contacted. Ellie Jean had tried several times to contact the distant talking people, but with no results. Clark told Ellie jean to move her transmit control up 1, 2 or 3 notches and down the same. Finally on the – You knew it, last down setting the transmitting people came on and said the same thing any normal person would say, we hear you. There were 43 people in this group and they were 475 miles away. Clark didn’t want to say it but the dummy who had set up the radio had not read the instructions. That person had set the receiver to 3 notches off, and how that could have happened is anybodies guess. Clark had a strong inkling this person did not want to contact anyone else. That is, until he found out it was an 11 year old girl that had set up the system.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 29
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Wowee was all anybody in the Clark family had to say 57 new people to meet next spring. But there was still a baby to be delivered and a Christmas, a Thanksgiving dinner and a whole cold winter to endure before happy times came again. Tiffany and Ellie jean had been talking about long hot showers during the winter time. Joe came over and asked Clark about it. I have a solution Clark said, just never got around to doing it. Well, Joe said. I can tell you now Ellie jean will not like it unless she is dead set on getting warm water without carrying it to the shower bag. I am waiting, Joe said. OK, let’s go down to the tank shop, the one that installs extra gas tanks made out of aluminum or stainless steel. OK Joe said. Then we need to get one of those old time pumps that people in trailers used to pump up a tank to wash your hands in. I see where this is going, Joe said, why not use an electric pump, just a whole lot more work but electric can be used. So each place had a 20 gallon aluminum gas tank hung over the coal stove with some fancy electrics running a pump to pressurize it. Joe went one step further and ran a line to his kitchen sink so warm water could be used to wash dishes. When Tiffany saw this, Clark sheepishly ran a line to his sink. He just thought it will work great in the wintertime, but I sure will get cussed in the summer when that warm water is gone and we go back to carrying heated water to a shower bag.

Clark was carving the turkey up on Thanksgiving Day when Joe blurted out just one word, propane. Clark said do not say another word Joe, I just never thought of it. The snow was too deep for them to do anything about that one word.

[Lbox88]

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 30
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This was a fine winter, the large group kept everyone entertained by having everyone in their group introduce themselves. The new talkers especially the young ones would really get into it and just talked about everything under the sun. The Clarks found out there were 2 teachers in the large group. One a mathematician and the other was a dual degreed instructor in English and American History. The instructors were in their middle 20’s, so barring any type of injury resulting in death. Those teachers would hopefully be around a long time. The big goody was they had a dentist.

Clark was sitting chewing on a piece of deer jerky. He and Joe had shot 2 young bucks as soon as it started snowing. A lot of jerky, roasts, steaks and hamburger were made. They had to use some of their canned hamburger to mix with the deer burger, but it was fresh and something different on their menu.

Ellie Jean had her baby one day before Christmas, everyone laughed when Joe said why didn’t you hang onto the little thing one more day and we would have had a Christmas baby. She had no problems with the delivery and Tiffany beamed like a new mother herself, when she held the little boy up in the air for all to see.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 31
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As soon as the roads were barely passable, Joe and Clark took off to the propane tank farm. The 2 ladies were given the job of watching the greenhouse garden for that day.
Clark told Joe let’s take a propane truck each. Then go to the stores to get the hot water tanks, stoves, maybe even a propane generator. 3 days later after some extreme plumbing and gas line installation they each had pressurized hot water for the bathroom and kitchen.

They were in constant contact with the 2 other groups and everyone decided to go to the large group for a meeting. The meeting lasted 2 days. Clark saw that the large group was extremely well situated in one of the larger cities in West Virginia. The small group decided to move into a large town halfway between Clark’s family and the large group. This was good Clark thought it would make travel on the motor bikes in the summer a good trip for visiting and trading some food stuffs. The large group was working on finding and stocking a farm with some livestock. Chickens had been found in several of the deep valleys which Clark thought the radiation had blown over instead of settling down. One of the large groups’ men said he had seen several cattle about 75 miles north of where they were in a sheltered large valley. Clark wondered how they had lived through the snow until he remembered there were large haystacks in the farming country.

Clark asked Frank the head of the 14 peopled group if he needed any help setting the housing up at the town they were going to move to. Frank told Clark, if he did he would call him on the radio. After a really good visit and a check by the dentist everyone went their separate way.

Just another story #6 -late prepping ex coal miner - Part 32
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Several years had gone by since the groups had met. The young children of the 2 smaller groups’ were taken to the large groups’ location where they were all boarded and schooled together for the long summer months. The other main reason besides schooling was for them to have interaction with many different little people their own age. One of the parents from the 2 smaller groups went along with the young children to help with the cooking and clothes washing. These parents usually traded out every 2 weeks. Clark had the most fun when his turn came around, he loved little people. The little people always laughed at his not funny jokes and he would beam when he saw them laugh.

The winters had started coming back into the middle of November when they were supposed to and the garden could now be planted around the middle or latter days of April. The weather had finally returned to normal and there were no more 8 foot snowfalls.

Tiffany had 2 more babies another boy and the last one a girl. Ellie Jean was just a human reproducer and had a baby every 14 or so months and was currently pregnant. Clark had to help Joe bring and set up another double wide trailer and hook it into the main house via an enclosed walkway for when the children were old enough to want their own separate bedroom. Life went on.

The end of just another story #6 – Late prepping ex-coal miner

[Lbox88]

Clark Story #7 - Clark and the Boat
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Clark had spent 8 years in the Navy and had gotten tired of being on a big flat top air craft carrier with all the BS the Navy gave you. He got out and went to work for an oil drilling firm in Alaska. He worked there for 2 years and made a huge sum of money. The ocean kept calling him back. He guessed he missed those days of smelling jet fuel as those jets took off and the kerosene smell hit his face and washed up into his nostrils and mouth for 8 or more hours every day – Nah – He didn’t miss that part of it.

He came upon a huge deal on a 42 foot sailing yacht with all the bells and whistles. I am going on 28 years old he told himself. He pulled out half the money he had saved and invested. He bought the boat. He thought the rest of the shrewd investments he had made with the help of a financial genius he worked with would take care of him. It may not be a great living cruising around in the tropical part of the Pacific Ocean he knew a little about. He grinned at that thinking, what red blooded boy would not want to do that. But he sure was going to visit those Polynesian females one more time before he died.

Akmed the brilliant research scientist that had been working on the Aids virus for his Al Queda supporters, told an unnamed messenger to tell THEM it was ready. What he had done, no one else had even dreamed of. He had speeded up the activity of the virus until it became active in every blood cell in a human body in less then 180 days. This resulted in what the general public knew as full blown AIDS. The scariest part was he had weaponized it and it was viable for 45 days after it was released into the open air. The rag heads now had one of the most devastating weapons to ever be unleashed on the world. The new medicines were partially effective in controlling it, but one had to know they had it before any treatment could begin. The evil rag heads had another plan to stop the medicine from being delivered to infected people. They were going to blow up the 5 world wide pharmaceutical plants that made the medicine; and for good measure the other 4 plants that had the capability to go into a somewhat rapid production. A new messenger came to his laboratory 2 or 3 times a day. There would be no notes, telephone calls or radio transmissions about this startling new weapon. The big question he was asked – Is there a cure? No – How do we keep from getting infected – Move to the moon or a nuclear submarine or live in a no entry underground shelter right before it is released and stay there for 1 year. Ah yes – there must be many HEPA filters to stop the air borne virus from penetrating into the underground shelter. Is it totally fatal? Yes – there will be a world wide die off of greater then 95 % of the population 7 months to one year after it is released. A dead body that has died from this infection will remain contact contagious for 45 days.

Clark was about to enter the area around the Cook Islands in the southern pacific, he had heard the cyclone warnings on his shortwave radio being broadcast. He never used the radio because there was no one currently he wanted to talk to, he just listened to the weather reports.

The 105 foot tall wave hit his boat broadside, he was lucky he didn’t hit the spar or get tangled up in the ropes. He landed on top of the wave and bounced up immediately, the lifejacket he had on saved his life for the moment. The rains came down like a solid sheet of water. He got his hand up over his nose and that was the only way he could breathe. He was beat unmercifully on his head, even though the long billed cap that was turned around backwards to keep the breeze from blowing it off was still firmly attached to his head. He never would figure out how it stayed on after the dunking. He had on Bermuda shorts a long sleeve light pullover over a T-shirt to help wick the sweat from him in the humid south pacific hot climate, and to protect his arms from the wind and sun. The running shoes were still on his feet. He put one hand down behind his back and felt the small fanny survival pack that he would not go on deck without. It contained a neat small waterproof double LED light that had a teeny solar panel on the back to charge the single double AA rechargeable battery. He had picked it up on a whim and thought it sure would be nice to just let the thing set in the sun and recharge the battery. 2 of those guaranteed 4000 light cigarette lighters in a zip lock baggie. The 3 large trash bags took up the most room. The rest of the items were in a 1 gallon zip lock bag, 1 flat bar Magnesium fire starter. A Swiss Army Knife for fisherman. 75 feet of stainless 60 pound line with 12 different size stainless hooks/snap swivels, sunglasses, magnifying glass, 30 water purifying pills, Silva compass, 1 bar of soap, 3 different sizes 20 feet long monofilament line from 2 pound to 14 pound test, 12 flat packs of alcohol swabs, 1 tube Neosporin, 3 regular sewing needles, a surgical sewing needle and thread. 4 survival eating bars, packaged toilet paper, 3 dish rags, some medicines and 1 flat squeeze jar of Deet, several tea bags, packets of coffee and sugar. The pack weighed about 2 pounds and was not in his way when he was on deck. His stainless steel 7 inch knife was in its Kydex sheathe with the sharpening stone and a 5 inch long ice pick slid inside the sheathe (the icepick was for filleting fish on the wooden rear trnsom) with his knife attached to the web belt on his side. The trustworthy stainless canteen full of water and stainless cup was on the other side of the military web belt. Clark learned a long time ago in the Navy to always be prepared for a stranding or dunking and a not so quick pickup.

He had to of swallowed 300 gallons of salt water and the wave action had not let up for the past 45 minutes. He said his prayers, it was getting dark.

Just another story #7 - Clark and the boat - Part 2
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Clark heard the coastal breaker wave action before he had enough time to say another 4 or 5000 prayers. I bet I get cut into 3000 pieces when I hit that coral. That was the last thought he had before waking up and coughing salt water out of deep in his stomach and lungs. He could not move, all he knew was he was just barely alive. He had been partially right he only had 2 or 300 deep gashes on both legs and his left arm that were oozing a little blood. He took a small drink of water to clean his mouth and get rid of the dryness. He looked at his legs and saw the sand in the cuts; he was really covered in sand. He gathered up his energy and took his clothes off and walked back into the ocean to rinse off his wounds. He would use a little clean water to flush the salt out after he had dried off on the windy beach. Looking up he saw the coconuts and knew he wouldn’t die of thirst, just dysentery he thought of the laxative effect of the sweet milk. There was some carving on a large coconut tree trunk and he walked up to it and read it. You have got to be ****ting me he said. He had watched the series of those shows because he was a fan and had a good idea of the flora and fauna on these islands. The writing said Home of the 13th Survivor series, 20 names was under it and the name of the island (Motukitiu), 26 June 2006.

Well he already knew he was in the Cook Islands, he just never bothered to memorize the native sounding spelled names. He cleaned his wounds up and used a teeny amount of the tube of Neosporin he had after using 2 alcohol swabs to kind of sterilize and wipe out the cuts. Any cut in the tropics was dangerous and had to be treated immediately to prevent infection. He kept staring inland and saw that the massive wave had swept over the small island. Most of these islands were inhabited by small groups of natives and he wondered if any had survived the tidal wave. They hadn’t.

He found some undamaged Aloe Vera plants and decided to use them for their antiseptic properties on his wounds in addition to the Neosporin. The sky was still overcast and he worried about millions of mosquitoes sucking the blood from him when darkness came. A shelter would have to be made and it would have to be made on the beach so the wind would keep the bugs from him. He ate half of a 3600 calorie survival bar and set out to make a lean to. He would look for water tomorrow after he had regained some strength and had let his wounds hopefully scab over.

Just another story #7 - Clark and the boat - Part 3
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Clark did not know it, but this was the 5th month after the Aids virus had been released and the 1st five months he had been happily sailing on the ocean out of reach of the air borne contagious particles. There had been a year’s supply of staples on the boat and a small desalinization plant that made fresh water when he ran the 25 horsepower diesel engine. He knew about scurvy and all the diseases and ailments that were caused by a lack of essential vitamins/minerals and had a well stocked medicine and nutrient supply. That supply was now gone and he would have to pull out of his memory knowledge from the survival classes for living on a deserted tropical island, that he had been forced to attend. He did pay attention when he was in those classes and had picked up a good bit of working knowledge.

The shelter was made and just in time because another deluge of rain came from the heavens and the winds picked up. He was glad he had made a removable palm frond covering to place on the ocean side because he would have been extremely cold wet and miserable if he hadn’t.

He moved his aching and stiff body off the 6 inch high 4 foot wide 6 foot long shelf he had made from bamboo poles to keep from getting sand in the open cuts and to keep the beach critters from gnawing on him. He had thought long and hard, digging into deep memories looking for that piece of information whether there were sea snakes in this area and he could not remember.

Just another story #7 - Clark and the boat - Part 4
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He decided to let his wounds heal some more before he exercised his body on a long walk and maybe cause them to start bleeding again. He used the butt of his knife and removed the outer casing from coconuts, drank a little milk and ate a little coconut. He just lazed around and did nothing but wait on what he knew would be inevitable, the sun would beat down unmercifully eventually on his body. The wounds looked good that evening and he decided to be smart and wait another 1 or 2 days to make sure they had a good scab covering on them and no red streaks were showing. The 3rd day there was a small red spot about a quarter inch long showing over one of the deep leg cuts. He did what they told him to do a long time ago, he took his knife and heated it a little bit on the fire and scraped the spot till blood came from it. Next he took 2 alcohol swabs and rubbed it right smartly over the area and filled in the seeping bloody mess he had made with Neosporin and used a piece of plastic cut from the top of one of his trash bags and tied an alcohol swab over the Neosporin filled scraped out area. He just prayed some more and sat there.

Just another story #7 - Clark and the boat - Part 5
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The sun came out about 2 pm. He removed the plastic and alcohol swab, put on a teeny amount of Neosporin and let the wound bake in the sun. There was nothing else he could do but wait, watch and pray. That night he ate another half of a survival bar because he knew they had the minerals and vitamins his body needed to fight off an infection. He covered over the Neosporin with some Aloe Vera before he went to sleep. The next afternoon the red spot was gone but he just let his leg stay out in the sun, the leg would not get sun burned, it was deeply tanned from wearing the Bermuda shorts on board. He ate another half of a survival bar and decided to wait another 2 days before doing anything that may open one of the scabbed over cuts to the humid air and cause another infection. He still had a half canteen of water and was drinking the coconut milk and hoping like Hell he did not get diarrhea.

Just another story #7 - Clark and the boat - Part 6
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The suicidal rag heads who did not know that they themselves were infected with the Aids virus blew up the 9 pharmaceutical plants. This was just about the time the CDC was picking up on a large number of new cases of people who had been infected. The world was just a dollar short and a day late on stopping this raging pandemic. The rag heads had slipped into China and Russia during the summer months when the virus was at its most infectious stage and released it everywhere. Since it took so long for the virus to show up in a human there would be no steps taken to counter it. The suicidal rag heads were persistent and covered the globe except for the north and south poles. That made no difference to the people at the Antarctic or the North Pole working there. There were always new people rotating in and out and a number of them were infected. The world would be a totally different place in less than a year.

On the 9th day Clark went looking for water and survivors. He found the totally destroyed village and the well. He tasted the water and it was just a teeny bit salty. He decided to pull out several hundred gallons of water over the next several days. The cranking of the well handle would tire him out quickly, but he figured the well would eventually replace or dilute the salty water if he gave it a little help. When he began to get pure water from the well he rinsed himself of the salty water from the ocean. Next he washed his clothes thoroughly and hung them to dry in a windy place in the sun. He knew that the clothes he was wearing would eventually rot away from the salt air environment. He washed his shoes and socks and let them dry. He stored the well sun dried clothes and shoes in a plastic trash bag and went barefooted and naked. He was thinking ahead when he either got picked up or made his own escape on an out rigger boat. Clothes would be needed when he got to civilization. The 3 credit cards Visa, Amex and Master charge he had were also carefully wiped clean and stored. His only wear was the web belt with his main survival equipment attached. After walking barefoot for an hour, he saw that he could not do it without cutting up the bottom of his feet. He pulled his walk around tennis shoes out and put them back on. He would make some type of sandal to keep his shoes from rotting away. He scoured the remnants of the village and found 2 different size flip flops made from tire rubber. They were both a little larger then his feet, but they would work. He washed his tennis shoes again in clean water and hung them to dry. He would store them away when they were good and dry.

Just another story #7 - Clark and the boat - Part 7
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His next project was to do some fishing and get some fatty fish meat into him for a needed energy boost. The only animals he saw alive on the island were birds, so he assumed the tidal wave had killed the meat animals the natives had here. He thought how high the wave was above his boat mast and scouted the island and found it was about 27 feet above sea level. That meant the 100 or so foot wave had rushed across the island sweeping everything not tacked down out to sea. He was right.

There was an 18 or 22 foot out-rigger boat that was broken in 2 pieces that had gotten tangled up in the palm trees with the rope hanging from it. He just looked at it and thought in several months I can make one just like that.

He carefully searched the entire small island taking great care not to rub against any bushes that may break open a scab. He found nothing but some plants and berries he thought were edible. He wasn’t sure about those berries because his memory had fogged up. Fish and crab would be plentiful and an occasional giant shrimp would be food enough. He would look over the natives garden area where he was sure he would find some sweet or white potatoes and some other things would re sprout from whatever they had forgotten in the gardens and the tidal wave had not washed away.

Now he sat down and drew in the sand from memory how these outlying islands were placed in the big ocean and how far he was away from a larger island where people were. The closest island next in line was due north and was about 100 miles from where he sat. He thought that would be a long row for one man. He decided to wait because he knew these small islands were serviced by a boat at least every 3 months. But he would start building him an outrigger boat just in case and to give him something to do.

Just another story #7 - Clark and the boat - Part 8
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3 weeks later the scabs had fallen off his wounds and he had became paranoid about scratching or harming himself, he moved like a 90 year old person in all his activities. There were potatoes in the ground and he replanted some eyes and continued his harvest of newly growing tomato and cucumber plants. The fishing was fantastic and he started lightly salting and smoking some of the large fish he caught. He stayed on the beach because the mosquitoes around the village were as thick as Heinz Ketchup. Anyway that’s what they looked like after they feasted on him while he was there. He had saved the Deet for an extreme emergency and he had found he really did not need to use it as long as he walked back out into the wind on the beach. He thought the villagers here must have been immune or they had large smoky fires running 24 hours a day. They did use smoky fires.

He always was ready to start a smoky fire himself if he ever saw a boat, but he never did. In about 3 more months he would have a large out rigger finished and would practice using it on the north part of the island, there was a small opening in the coral breakers surrounding the island and he would use that opening to practice rowing a distance from the island. The compass he had was functional as well as the sun and the stars he could use to navigate with. But the compass was the key to vast ocean travel on overcast days and nights. Even if he veered off course a little while travelling north on overcast days or cloudy nights; he could always get back on track using the compass at night and the North Star and another one.

The only people not infected were people like him and hermits living in the deep woods where the rag heads had not sent anyone to contaminate the place. There were other small islands that had people still alive on them but just barely, because the tidal wave had mostly cleared all the sea level islands and any one on the coast on a big island had drowned.

4 months later he was totally disgusted, he had no way to communicate and knew nothing of world events. He could survive nicely here with what he had, but that was stupid, life with no other human interaction was not a good life. He would wait 2 more months for a rescue and that was it. He really did not want to row a boat even with a small sail helping when the wind was in the right direction a hundred miles.

3 months later he had had enough of this loneliness. He filled 500 coconuts full of fresh water and enough food on the drag along small outrigger to last what he hoped was 2 months, dried fish would be the main staple with 15 or so pounds of potatoes that could be baked on the flat rock oven in the center of the canoe like out rigger raft boat. Salt was no problem a small hot fire with the empty coconut husks could boil his stainless pot dry and he could scoop out the salt, but that would not be necessary. He had already boiled out 4 or 5 pounds and stored it in a gallon zip lock bag. One large trash bag contained his dried smoked fish. The fire would be used mostly to bake a potato and he knew that if a person ate skin and all he would get all the nutrients to keep a person healthy. He would also use a small piece of monofilament and a snap swiveled hook to troll along behind and maybe catch a fresh fish.

It had been 13 months since the virus was released and Clark had been one lucky human by not being in any area where the airborne virus lingered. He set off on the 100 mile rowing adventure and hoped the wind would help with the small sail he had rigged up.

Just another story #7 - Clark and the boat - Part 9
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11 days later the large island came into view. He just said to himself, boy I am a good navigator. He had no idea how lucky he was. A tenth of a degree off and he would have missed the island completely and next landfall was Australia 1500 miles away. He would not have made it, because as soon as he rowed into the big island cove, another cyclone tore through the open ocean.

He tied his raggedy homemade ocean travelling pile of sticks to a big palm tree and looked for shelter against the 80 mile per hour winds that were buffeting the island. He ran inland about a mile before he found a concrete building that was still standing after the 1st tidal wave washed in over this island. The roof only leaked in one corner – so he decided to stay in this door less windowless place and he would finally use the 100% Deet for the night.

The next day in pouring rains he walked around the island and there were no people. He could see off in the distance the next island and it had smoke coming from what he assumed were campfires. He would stay here for a few days until the ocean calmed down. That reminded him of his outrigger boat. He laughed when he got to the beach. The 2 attached boats had been washed inland about 400 yards and were still in good condition

Just another story #7 - Clark and the boat - Part 10
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3 days later the ocean was as calm as glass and he set off for the big island. He got there the next afternoon and found what was causing all the smoke. They were funeral pyres on the beach and there were he guessed a 1000 or more human bones in the smoking remains.

This did not make any sense unless there was some kind of pandemic loose on this place. He would be careful when he approached any human. The virus had died out and was not active anywhere in the world. Clark did not know this and it would be a long time before he had even the tiniest inkling of what had happened to the world.

He followed the well travelled basalt volcanic road for a mile or more before he saw any people. There were 3 children and 1 older girl sitting beside a fire eating something. He hollered out, hello. They all got up and ran away. Well so much for my scholarly approach he thought.


Just another story #7 - Clark and the boat - Part 11

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He ate the food they had left. It was cooked so he wasn’t worried about germs. He just sat there and waited. He was sure someone would come along, because this place had at least 35 houses and even a few motor bikes parked in the roadway.

He was right, 30 minutes later a girl said who are you and where did you come from. He explained it all from 50 feet away to a girl who had a cotton face mask on and was upwind. She finally approached and took her face mask off. Clark grinned inwardly, this girl or one like her was the main reason he had came to the islands. She was a perfect example of a beautiful Polynesian girl. They talked for hours and finally the children came out from behind another building and the girl told them it was safe. This man had not been infected.

He found out they had had been told by a Seer to move to a mountain cabin the youngest 7 year old boy’s dad owned. This was right before the virus came to the village. They were emphatically told not to come back or have any contact with people for a year or more. The parents of the young 3 children believed in the fortune teller. The children with the older girl as caretaker left for the mountainous area the cabin was located. The cabin was on the windward side of the 4500 foot mountain and mosquitoes were few and far between because of the constant wind from the ocean. They thrived on the native fruits, a garden and a herd of sheep. They had to kill and eat 14 of the 30 sheep but they did it to get the protein, because they were not allowed to return to the village or the ocean for fish. They came down 4 days before Clark got to the other island. The small tribe doctor was a good one and he figured out what had happened and the sick people were told what was going on. As soon as someone died they were taken to the beach area and burned. The remaining members either walked or were helped to the small gathering area in the large community hall where beds had been set up. The girl had read the instructions in her parent’s house on how to dispose of the bodies in the community hall. It had taken her 3 days to put the 11 remaining mummified bodies on a large wheeled pull cart. She towed the cart with the grizzly remains to the beach and poured kerosene on the large pile of wood she had put on them. The last person in the community hall had left a note on the day before he died and dated it. The note was written 4 months ago.

The girls name was Isma, she was 22 years old. Clark had found a new home.

The end of Just Another Story #7 – Clark and the Boat

[Lbox88]

Clark Story #8 - The Young Genius

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The young boy’s IQ was over 240 and was off the scale used to measure his intelligence. He was 12 years old and his name was Clark.

Clark told his dad, Joe, he was worried about the economic worldwide down turn and they should take some preventive measures in case of trouble in the nearby city. His dad didn’t think anything would happen to them 4 miles away. They lived in a large ranch house with a half basement surrounded by 2 and half acres. The road leading to the house was off a secondary road that ran almost parallel to the super highway. There were 3 other houses on this road and they were about a half mile apart. The property Clark lived on had wheat growing on both sides and a large orchard farm was behind them. Across the road was a mass of uncut tangled undergrowth that was not being looked after by the owner who lived 300 or so mile away. The man had been trying to sell it for several years but his price was too high. Clark told his dad he was wrong and he was going to spend some of his own money and build something that was safer then a ranch house. His dad just said do what you want it’s your money. Clark had made some neat discovery about breaking down medicines that were ingested or shot into a human body. The formula he had developed would guarantee the medicine was immediately absorbed by the body. This resulted in the strength of the medicine to be reduced and would save the medical industry billions over the next few years. He had patented those little discoveries and sold them to a large pharmaceutical firm for several million dollars. He knew he could have held the company up by demanding a percentage of each pill or shot. But he wasn’t greedy. He had more then enough money to last him several lifetimes. A little of the money would be used to go to any college he chose. He had not decided what college he wanted to go to just yet. He was just about to finish up all the classes he wanted to take from the local university.

Just Another Story # 8 - The Young Genius - Part 2
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The next day Clark called the real estate company that was managing the property across from the ranch house. It was 14 acres and had a creek running alongside it and a covered over well from when someone had lived there 50 or so years ago. Clark had walked the property once and saw these things and the collapsed farm house and barn. He offered 5% less then the man was asking and waited. The offer was accepted and Joe had to go take possession of the deed and sign all the paperwork, because Clark was underage.

Clark had his mom take him to the college at 230pm. He was going to meet the civil engineer he had taken a class from. They talked for about an hour and the engineer told him a concrete earth covered dome is what you are looking for. Clark thanked him and asked him what his fee was for the information. The engineer laughed and said that part is free, however if you want a nice set of plans, that will cost. Clark said thank you, I’ll get back with you in a day or two.

The young Clark had found the survival sites a few years ago and read all the tales and absorbed the knowledge in all the areas that were posted. He was ticking them off mentally and knew he needed to make another look-see of the property. He spent 3 hours wandering around his property and kind of knew what he wanted and how he wanted to lay it out.

2 days later he spent 3 hours with the engineer with a notebook full of notes and a diagram. The engineer went through everything Clark gave him and said, gonna be extremely expensive. Clark asked for a ball park number and the engineer said maybe 500 to 800 thousand dollars. The young one said fine. The engineer called his architect friend and told him he had a real good job for him could he meet him at Clarks home tomorrow evening. The civil engineer went to the architect’s office the next morning and laid out what was to be designed. The architect said I want to look over the place before drawing anything up. The evening meeting with the young Clark went as expected. He told Clark this is an easy job as you have it lain out, but let me show you some things that will make a better and easier job for the contractors.

Ten days later a copy of the plans were given to Clark and a call for bids went out from the architect. A week later a lot of heavy equipment showed up and per instructions made a double lane graveled road at the far end of the property to start the huge excavation job. The wild tangled treed and weeds that were in front of the property were left alone. This would hide the earth covered domed places from the roadway when construction was done 3 or so months from now.

The design was for two 50 foot X 50 foot X 8 foot deep domes to be constructed and connected by a 4 foot tunnel connection with 2 solid steel doors on each end of the short tunnel. A new well was dug and the old one permanently covered over, the water was good and needed no treatment for drinking. The new well top was flush with the ground and needed one of those special unlock key tools to open it. A sign was on it that just said contaminated water.

Just Another Story # 8 - The Young Genius - Part 3
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The architect, the contractor and Clark had a meeting; they made a change to one of Clark’s designs. He wanted a 2 inch thick solid sheet of metal to rise up to lock out any intruders. They talked him into using 1 inch thick steel so the hydraulic lifters could be installed in the area where they were to be placed. If 2 inch thick steel was used, different larger lifting hydraulics would have to be used and the room was not big enough for them.

Young Clark incorporated the property as Clark farm properties. He did this before any construction started to get the best deals for equipment. Corporations have much more discount buying power then let’s just say a single named individual would. He used the corporation name to have a 10,000 gallon propane tank buried and a 5000 gallon diesel tank buried beside of it and last but not least a 2000 gallon gasoline tank buried. The tanks were all new Teflon coated and should last a1000 or more years. They all were inspected before being lowered onto the bed of sand which warranted no scratches on the bottom side. The contractors knew that Clark was the big honcho and treated him as an adult; especially when they found out how smart he was. He had a lawn chair that he used to sit on and just watch things. He never interfered in their work. He would occasionally ask the contractor boss why something was done a certain way. The boss of the work crew thought to himself, I must have answered him right because the boy did not say anything else.

What Clark was really interested in was the piping for the communication wiring, electrics, fuel, water, waste, exhaust and air intake. He watched that installation carefully. The water tank was delivered. This was a special tank with the top sloped 35 degrees and brackets welded on top to slide in the 24 280 watt solar panels. It was a 4000 gallon stainless steel tank that was placed on an iron latticed structure, 12 feet high. The sloped section was pointed due south. The water pipe going in from the well and out to the domed housing was a 1 inch schedule 40 plastic pipe that was inside a 2 inch iron pipe. The electric wiring that ran to the power system in the dome from the solar panels was run through a 2 inch galvanized pipe. Before the solar panels were installed, a paint sprayer was used to paint the stainless steel tank a dark old timey brown coloring. A huge sign etched in ¼ inch unpainted iron was hung from its side saying Contaminated Water, Do Not Drink. The iron sign and lattice ironwork holding the tank up quickly got that old timey rust look and would last 2 or 300 years. Clark had 2 sewage systems installed; one was a huge septic tank for each dome and then a large 600 yard long leach field. That was capable of handling waste from both domes.

Just Another Story # 8 - The Young Genius - Part 4
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48 inch concrete pipes for the emergency escape from each dome was ran to within 6 feet of the roadway and U turned upwards where a neat stainless steel 1 inch thick submarine type lid was placed on each, this lid could only be opened from the inside. The lids were covered over with 6 inches of dirt and blackberries planted over them. The architect had been in touch with a landscape engineer and they used aerial photographs to plant the barrier plants most suitable for security. Clark knew there would be several weak spots in the system but he would live with it. One was the 12 inch 10 foot high pipe with the 1 inch round inside screened over holes at the top to supply the air intakes for the 2 propane and 2 diesel generators. It was unpainted ½ inch thick iron pipe with a welded on top cap; that was allowed to rust over. The 10 foot height was to insure they were above the occasional 4 and 5 feet of snow the region got. The other was the steel 6 inch exhaust pipe which was sloped slowly upward and brought up out of the ground 10 feet high beside a large oak tree.

He really laughed out loud when he saw the 10 foot high chain link fence with razor wire on the outriggers in the wooded area it had been placed. The short wave 50 feet tall antennas were centered in the middle of this 15 by 15 foot area on a big cement pad. The 4 signs around the chain link said – US Army emergency relay communications antenna system – No copper parts installed – No user parts available. Keep Out. The antenna was the furthest thing from the domes and a schedule 40 four inch pipe carried the buried co ax cable to the dome communications room where it just dangled freely.

The grass and blackberries on top of both domes had taken root in the 1st half of the 3rd month. The landscape boss man himself planted 15 small pine (dwarf Christmas trees) on each dome. The security camera team the architect had hired showed up and installed 6 day night cameras in very discreet places. Clark would have been hard pressed to find them if he did not know already the general area they were to be put. The 2 outer ones in the tangled undergrowth grown over area could be swiveled 360 degrees, they could be zoomed in and out and one had a clear view of Clark’s dad’s house. The 4 cameras on the domes were fixed wide angle zoom types. The contractor crew had rented an under the road drilling rig and surreptitiously dug under the road way in the culverts 36 inches down and pushed a 2 inch galvanized pipe under the roadway. The two 360 degree cameras wiring was run under the roadway onto Clark’s dad property where it was brought up and placed on 12 foot poles. The wiring was then run into the security center in the house. Clark himself paid this crew with cash he had in one of the 2 safes in the house. The chief of the team commented him on proper placement of the underground connections which made this an extremely simple job. The really expensive 4 HEPA filters arrived. They were 4 feet long and 16 inches around and would fit into the two 16 inch iron air intakes that were directly behind the domes and not visible from the roadway, these pipes were capped over and 1 inch round inside screened over holes had been pre drilled. 2 were stored away and 2 were placed beside the air intakes to be installed when necessary.

[Lbox88]

Finally the generators arrived and were bolted down in their room. They were prepped but never started. Clark took a chance on that, he knew one out of 4 would run, law of probability he said to himself. The interior was scrubbed down, cleaned up and painted. The rugs would go in just before the furniture arrived. The long term supplies went into their respective rooms. Finally the furniture would be arriving in a few days. The carpet layers made short work of carpeting the areas that were designated. Furniture was placed in the logical location. Clark turned on 2 of the large dehumidifiers and set them to 25%.. The large 1 inch steel outer protection door was raised and locked into position. Several other signs had been posted around and on the domes – One said mine sealed due to explosive gas – keep away. A new iron gate had been made of untreated steel and allowed to rust. The sign on it said – Empty farm lot for rent or lease – He put his personal cell number on that sign. The gravel had been removed from inside the gate; berries, grasses and shrubbery were planted directly behind and in front of the rusty gate. Clark said to himself now we wait.

Clark and his dad were just getting into his pickup when a crazed man ran down the street Just Another Story # 8 - The Young Genius - Part 5
shooting people. Clark never thought about getting shot. He just watched from his side of the truck through the windows. Just like the survival doom and gloom places talk about. He told his dad, I am never going unarmed again. I am enrolling in a combat shooting class. His dads eyes rolled and he said aren’t you going a little overboard. It was just one person and not a mob. He looked at his dad and said why don’t you ask those 3 people who were lying on the ground bleeding to death whether they cared if it was one person or 50 who did it.

The bill to date was 733 thousand dollars. It would be more very quickly.

Just Another Story # 8 - The Young Genius - Part 6
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He started shooting classes a week later and became very good with whatever weapon he was instructed to shoot. He was too small to shoot the high powered calibers that had a big kick. The instructor told him to buy a few ported rifles, like a 30-06 or a 308 and see which one he liked. Both the 06 and the 308 were fine shooting rifles, and were semi-automatic. He stocked up ammunition for both. His go-to gun was the M-16 semi-automatic recoil buffered rifle that had no recoil and was civilian legal. He and the instructor became chummy and Clark told him a little about what he knew of automatic weapons. The instructor said I can get you a brand new in the box M-16 model 3 I believe it is with the 3 round burst capability. Clark said neat, how much. 4500 dollars. I’ll pay you tomorrow he told the instructor. Clark stored the gun in the dome in a safe he had silver and gold in. 3 more weeks went by and the instructor told him I know where a new M-1A full automatic is. The question came out, how much. 6500 dollars. I’ll pay you tomorrow. Clark could not shoot the M1 right now, but he would grow into it. He used a semi automatic 20 guage in the combat close quarter’s course of fire. The 12 guage used the same techniques and he would grow into that also. He heard a booming sound coming from the next range over and asked about it. The Sarge is shooting his 50 caliber. Clark said I have read it is like shooting a 243. The instructor said yes it is with the suppressor and porting. Only bad thing is you cannot carry it. The system weighs around 30 pounds with the day night scope and the bi-pod. Clark just asked how much. The instructor grinned and said let me ask around. A week later the instructor said 14000 dollars. Clark said I’ll bring it tomorrow. The instructor told him this gun is so hot it is on fire and it would not be in his best interest to ever get caught with it. The 50 caliber went into the dome safe. He started to buy small amounts of ammunition for the 50 caliber so as not to attract attention. The instructor said to him one day. Come over to the big shack behind the office. Clark went and saw the large number of reloading turrets. The instructor said I’ll teach you a little before you jump in and buy any equipment. You may like one reloader better then another. So Clark became a reloader and spent several more thousand dollars on equipment.

He had decided not to go to a campus this year. He would take on line classes that appealed to him. A degree was only good for a job and he was not in the market for one. The amount of classes he would take would qualify him for a number of degrees if he took a semester of on campus classes. He had planned to do that later. The students were several years older then he was and that made it slightly uncomfortable for him to physically go to a campus.

Clark got a phone call about leasing the property. He told the person it had been leased and the person that leased it had not taken the sign down.

He was not doing anything important and decided to have his mom drop him off at the Mensa club. He had not stopped there in 6 months. Lo and Behold he said. There was a young girl about his age and he looked at her again, she was very pretty. She was almost as smart as him and in a few areas she outshined him. He thought she would make a good friend

Just Another Story # 8 - The Young Genius - Part 7
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They had many, many things in common other then college courses. She was a doom and gloomer and hung on the same web sites he perused. She came from an upper middle class family and they usually went along with her preparation recommendations, but stopped short when it came to guns. He said your parents came from the same mold mine did. She giggled a really young girl giggle. He liked it. They talked for a long, long time. Her cell phone rang; it was her mom coming to pick her up. As she was leaving he said if you want to go shooting you can come with me. You don’t have to tell your parents. She said AWESOME out loud. She said they don’t give me very much money to spend. He just said don’t worry about it. She stared at him a minute and he imagined he could see the thought processes running through her mind. You are the Clark that sold that process to the pharmaceutical company. I never got into that area in Chemistry; I’ll look at it someday when I have some free time. She said I’ll call you or you can call me and we will plan out this nefarious hot date to go shooting. She giggled all the way out the door.

Clark told his parents he had met a girl his own age at the Mensa club and she would come visit him or he would go visit her. They said great you finally found somebody that can out talk and out smart you. He blushed.

They went to the firing range and he enrolled her in the same class he had taken and watched as she struggled to do some of the awkward combat shooting moves. She persevered and learned how. She was also a better shooter then he was.

A few weeks later she handed him a draft of when she thought the world banking and the US system would collapse. It was 13 months plus or minus 15 days. Dang he thought after he went over her charts. I am going to use some of that money that will soon be worthless. He bought 300 thousand dollars more of junk silver from dimes through silver dollars and 100 thousand dollars of small denomination gold. He went back through his mental check list and made a written one of things he and his family and hers too would need if they wanted to join him. Checked off the heirloom seeds; he went to a seed place on the internet and ordered seeds for stuff he would eat, he called her and asked what kind of vegetable foods she liked. 2 days later he came out of his room, he had spent 31 thousand dollars. Next he called a farm tractor supply placed and ordered some heavy diesel equipment. He asked the salesman if they had a place a heavy transportation helicopter could hover to pick up this stuff. The man never slowed down, he said yes we do and I can recommend a good hauler. When can I make arrangements for this stuff to be picked up? 3 weeks the man said. Clark and the girl got together and made a few more lists. Her name was Sylvie. She told Clark that she didn’t think her parents knew how to spell Sylvia, so I got stuck with this moniker. He laughed at that.

Clark checked his financial status and found he had 8.2 million dollars left. He just shook his head and thought that’s a lot of money to lose when the SHTF. He enrolled himself and Sylvie in a 21 day down and dirty tractor and diesel engine mechanic course taught by a master mechanic. Some tools and extra equipment was bought and delivered behind the domes. He told Sylvie we have to bring a crew out to the property and have some construction done. They needed some large barns and sheds to put the equipment in. He called the contractor boss that did his last job and told him he would pay him double for 3 or so weeks work. The contractor was there the next day. The gate was opened back up and the gravel on the road went back down. The concrete was poured, buildings were built and a 300 by 300 foot garden area was ploughed under, an 8 foot chain link fence went around it. Chicken coops were built and chicken tractors readied. 4 men went into the back section of the area on this side of the barriers that were planted, cut and split 60 cords of wood and stacked it under a sloped shingled wood storage shed. The stainless steel chimneys were installed in the barns on the coal/wood burning stoves. 4 smallish size greenhouses were strategically placed around the area with treated lumber on the interior walkway and shelving installed. Sylvie and Clark checked their lists. 90% of the projects were done. None of the work could be seen from the roadway.

They researched meat chickens and laying chickens for a little bit and put the breeds on their lists. They decided on 2 of the midget cows and 2 medium sizes because of the feed requirement. They made plans to buy those, 3 months before Sylvie’s projected collapse of the country. They took a 28 day class on homesteading/gardening and how to run the small columbine. A small automatic milk machine was installed in the barn and an electric cow manure hauler/mover was added. This required another 45000 dollars worth of solar panels to run the equipment in the barns. Clark was not worried he still had almost 8 million dollars left.

Just Another Story # 8 - The Young Genius - Part 8
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He bought Sylvie an M-16 just like his, the legal one and the not so legal one. They downloaded a lot of music they currently liked onto 6 different computers. He thought there were 2700 DVD movies in the dome and large flat screens to watch them on. The Foxfire books were bought and the survival sites were scoured for pertinent information on surviving long term after a big happening.

The area was reasonably defensive with the cameras the key. Someone would have to stay outside. They decided to swap out and do it themselves – They were 13 years old now. They would use one of the exits and one would go back while the other covered the entrance back over. Radio communications would be the special scrambled hand units from the watcher inside monitoring the cameras.

On-line classes went on, Clark and Sylvie used the same study technique. They read and memorized the textbook then went through the end of chapter questions, if they couldn’t answer the questions or an area was not clear a question was written down to ask the instructor. Clark usually ended up with 25 to 27 questions on a text book; Sylvie had 30 to 35. Clark and Sylvie knew text books were not a wealth of information, but that is the way the US educational system ended up. An instructor was supposed to interpret what the text book writers were trying to impart. Both of them said Meh Yuukie on that part of book learning.

6 more months to go Clark told Sylvie. She said I revised the time estimate. The US and world bankers are pulling some kind of illegal fast shunting of monies and I haven’t figured out what they are doing. I have shortened the time to 50 days.

Both of their parents were in some kind of dreamland wacko world. They kept saying everything was OK. The warnings were everywhere on the news about bad economies world wide. On the 49th day all 4 of the parents went into the city for dinner. They asked the 2 teens to come along. They told their parents that there would have to be some kind of massive explosion on the Clark residence to get them to leave the house to go to the city. The parents asked why they felt that way and the 2 kids told them what they thought may happen. The parents rolled their eyes and said nothing will ever happen like that. The SHTF riots started 2 hours after the 2 teens parents arrived in one of the cities upscale restaurants for dinner. They didn't make it out of the riot caused firestorm that engulfed the restaurant. Clark and Sylvie never saw their parents again.

There was some coverage of the city events before the TV station went off the air. It was beyond Clark's knowledge the mind of a rioter; they destroyed the infrastructure it took for them to live. Burning down houses shooting up bystanders, looting the food stores, just insanity prevailed as far as Clark was concerned.

They moved over to a dome and waited for a phone call from their parents. They both knew how to drive so they took a pickup and a small 4 cylinder car. There were motor bikes in the 2nd dome. The one camera was trained on Clark’s dad’s house to watch for their parents return. The radio and TV were just reporting total chaos in the US with the rest of the civilized world not far behind. They had gotten the chickens and 2 of the miniature cows which would be calving soon; the 2 mid size cows had not been bred and were not ready for pick-up. They both had gone to a cow livestock slaughter and watched with great interest and knew how to do that if necessary. The chicken slaughter house was a stinking mess, but they watched how the chickens were killed, plucked and processed on the assembly line. It sure did smell bad there they said. The just turned 13 year olds were alone and on their own.

They did nothing but eat, feed the chickens and let the cows out of the barn to wander around and graze. No one had been seen on the outer road. Clark just figured the locals were staying close to home. He decided to go get a lot of things from his house in case a bunch of looters came and destroyed it. They loaded the truck up with his personal stuff and left one car parked in front of the house.

They talked about shooting people. Clark said if they break into my house I am going to shoot them. That is what the President of the US said to do to a looter. She said OK, I can go along with that. I know soon, she continued, there will be gangs of tough guys in low rider cars driving here looking for an easy mark and food. Food will be king before long. She kept on, if you don’t have any to feed your children or yourself, you or your children will die. The hungry people will kill you to get at your food. He made another trip to his house and took all the food and left the cabinets open and turned the beds half over and threw clothes from the closets. The house looked as if it had been ransacked. They left the house, garage and shed doors open and returned to the dome. The grass and plants had started to grow back behind the gate and it looked like the roadway to the domes had not been travelled on in a long while.

He told her if we do not start any machinery up, there will be no reason for a gang to check out a locked farm road with a sign that says empty lots for rent. He was right. They monitored the camera and watched at least 60 or more cars with gang members go into his house, come out and throw their hands up in the air, as if to say, somebody beat us to it.

[Lbox88]

Just Another Story # 8 - The Young Genius - Part 9
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2 weeks later the killing began. One low riding car that screamed gang stopped at the gate. There were 4 big husky black men and 2 Spanish looking guys visible in the monitor. He said it is 275 yards to the gate – a long shot for the M-16. She said the exit tunnel will put us beside them about 75 yards away. He said I’ll go to the exit gate, but I don’t think that will work because I may not be able to punch up through that dirt and blackberry plant roots without making a lot of noise. The gang members got back in the car without climbing the gate and drove down the road. Clark said they will be back and 2 of them will climb the gate and find us. Let us go get ready to ambush them. They took their M-16’s and 8 inch long barreled 8 shot 22 pistols. They could consistently hit a quarter with those revolvers at 30 yards. They did not need the pistols. Clark was right they came back and stopped; the 2 skinny Spanish guys got out and started over the fence. Sylvie shot both of them with a 3 round burst each. Clark shot the 2 guys through the windshield with two 3 round bursts. The 2 guys in the back seat came out shooting Glocks sideways, gangster style at all the trees. He used 2 more controlled 3 round bursts and knocked them down. Sylvie shot one of the guys on the ground with another burst. She hollered out his hand was moving. Clark told her this is a mess. Follow me in the car that’s parked in front of the house and I will drive this car over a deep embankment about 3 miles up near the end of the road. The car was gotten rid of and it would be many years if ever before it was found in the gulley it was in.

Clark started up the small back hoe and put on a pair of gloves. He tied a rope around each leg of the bodies and dragged them inside the gate and behind the tangled weed and tree line. He dug a 5 foot deep by 8 foot long by 8 wide hole and used the shovel on the hoe to push them in and then a bit of meanness came over him; he tamped them down in the hole with the bucket. He covered the hole and drove over it several times. Sylvie had used the car and got 2 buckets of water and a broom, she rinsed the blood off the roadway and swept the broken auto glass into the culvert. He walked back to the gate by himself just to have some time alone. He raked and sprinkled some new weed seed down on the tracks of the backhoe. They did not talk much the rest of the afternoon.

The next day he told her we could have put all of those bodies in the trunk and ran it into the gulley. She grinned at him and said; next time we will do that. Let’s go open that exit up at the end of the escape tunnel so we can at least use it someday. That was quickly taken care of and Clark told himself to get some knee pads the next time he goes crawling through a concrete tunnel. He told her we will take a machete knife every 3 or 4 weeks and cut down through the top dirt around the steel escape hatch so the roots wouldn’t make it so hard to open.

There was very little news except from the emergency channel saying the same old story, looters will be shot.



Just Another Story # 8 - The Young Genius - Part 10
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One morning they went to the barn and one of the little cows had a little baby cow lying on the ground beside her. She was licking the afterbirth up. Sylvie said eew gross let’s come back in a bit.

They gathered some eggs and had a big fried egg and rehydrated potato breakfast. They put the chickens in the drag along chicken coop and put it in a different spot and threw some cracked corn in for them to eat while they were scratching around for bugs. The coop was cleaned out and sprayed down with water. After it dried Clark sprayed some dust around the coop that was supposed to kill everything and not harm the chickens.

They watched a police car drive by and look at the house but to them it did not look like a short haired clean cut policeman. They just watched. He kept on travelling. An hour later he came back and drove into the driveway of the empty house. He came back out an hour later and drove off. Clark was trying to recall whether there were any official documents filed on the construction of the off grid dome houses and he recalled correctly that there would be no need in a rural area to file plans for a barn like basement structure. So there was no paper trail of the building. The only people who knew all about it were the construction crew and he had been assured they were all ex military people who lived 7 or 800 miles away and had their own shelters. They did not want to return here because Clark had told them he was not going to put any long term foods in the place. It was just a safe place to hide if the cities rioted. So that little lie went over well. He wondered about the UPS man and the semi truck driver who had delivered the tons of long term food items. He thought correctly if they hadn’t showed up 45 days after the event they were not going to come. There was 20 years of supplies for 6 people. Clark made a simple calculation and decided he and Sylvie would be very old before they ran out of food.

The next morning Clark told Sylvie they should go raid the fruit orchard for a few fruits. Almost a mistake.

Just Another Story # 8 - The Young Genius - Part 11
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They approached the orchard like they were on a hostile combat patrol which they had been taught in the training they had. Good thing they did. There were 7 gang members arguing over how much they were going to get for taking a few bushels of apples and peaches to their brothers in the city. They talked through their radio microphones to each other quietly into their ear pieces and retreated. When they were about 500 yards away; Sylvie said we have to kill them; we cannot have people like that living that close to us. He agreed. They planned on a dawn approach and when they were all outside they would shoot them. Simple but most times effective. They then talked about a dusk raid because they knew they would all be outside in the warm weather. They decided to watch the place instead for 2 days and then they would make a decision. Sylvie was afraid they would smell the chickens, hear the chickens or hear the cow lowing in the evening.

2 days later they learned that the 7 gang members had a small drinking party about 45 minutes each evening right before it got dark at a picnic table 30 or so yards from the house. They knew they could get within 65 yards before they shot at the 7 people. Clark and Sylvie did not want to leave any survivors. It worked perfectly; it would not have worked if they did not have the 3 round burst automatic rifles. 2 of them had gotten almost to the house; one of them was wounded, before they were shot down. Clark with Sylvie’s help got them dumped in the auto and they were driven into the gulley where the other car was. 9 buckets of water were used to saturate the blood to where it soaked into the ground and left no trace. Clark used a push broom to scuff up the area. They picked up the brass and got their fruit. Sylvie made a comment; dangerous livelihood watching and delivering fruit. They left no trace of their visit. Clark knew other gang members would come and they would kill them too until the fruit was gone.

They talked about what a dangerous place this USA had become. Clark brought up sex. She said in about 4 or 5 years. My brain is way ahead of my body hormones; I have not yet started my menstrual cycle. She giggled and said take things in hand because it is going to be a long wait before that happens.

He grew about 3 inches that fall; she stayed the same and kept that pre teen sparkle.

They again sneaked to the orchard and watched 6 or more people go over the grounds with a fine tooth comb. He said good thing we cleaned up after ourselves. She said this gang is going to give us trouble; there are some trained military people giving them instructions. He said want to go into the dragons lair. She said that little growth spurt you had must have stunted some of your intelligence. He laughed at her and said I was only joking.

They watched the monitor and just a few low riding gang automobiles drove by the house. The doors and windows of the house had been left open and the gangs never searched the house again.