(Everything) Join with your knowedge & imagination to tell the story. THE AWAKENING

Something just awakened me, what was it? Tried turning the light on to see the clock and the power is off. Lots of dogs barking all around the area but in the distance. Can hear rumblings...first I thought it was just a summer T storm in the distance. But it sounds like big equipment being moved. Woke Chubby Hubby up, the window is right at head level at the head of the bed. But he couldn't hear it. He is half deaf from being a heavy equipment operator all his life.

But I can hear it. It doesn't get any louder but its moving and moving around both sides of us. Yikes, our neighbor just scared the beejeebees out of us. Walked up in the dark to the window and whispered real loud. His son just came in from a football game in Ocala and said that the area had troops and tanks all over the place and that they were moving stuff out our way. Said that they were moving into a large clearing near the Marshall swamp and setting up tents etc. Said there were road blocks on the highway coming across the river.

He said he turned around and came back through Sharps Ferry Rd and through the forest. Said everyone was being turned back west on Hwy 40..back into Ocala. Said the dirt roads were full of pick up trucks and old SUVs. All the good old boys who know their way around the forest. Said he talked to a few and nobody knew what the hell was going on, but instincts told them they needed to get out of Dodge right now. Said they hadn't seen troop movements like that since Nam. Said his son stopped at Cedric's place down by the Moss Bluff dam and got him out of bed.

Since 9/11 Cedric is in charge of security at the Armory in Ocala. He is NG. Cedric didn't have a clue and was fixing to get into his Humvee, uniform etc and see if he couldn'twork his way around and through the troops and find out what was what. His Humvee radios were picking up nothing. Hmmmmmmm!

Chubby Hubby just went out to make sure the generator diesel tank had plenty of diesel in it. I got out a couple of kerosene lamps. No way are we going to be lit up like a Christmas tree when everyone else is in the dark. CH got in the car and went down in back by the lake and woke one of the guys up that he knows and told him what he knew. Other than that he said all was quiet. But hard to tell when the power is off. I suspect most everyone is still asleep.

The sounds have not gotten any closer so guess they are stopping at the swamp/river. I just don't know what to do. I placed a loaded gun at every door and thats about all I can do. Will have to wait until daylight.

Ok. someone else start the next chapeter.

Taz

<b>(EDIT: Address off-storyline comments to this thread: http://66.191.143.250/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29692 - Dennis)</b>

The Commentary Thread is presently found here: http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=29692&highlight=The+Awakening - Alan, May 2005

Hi Taz this is a great idea I love this kinda thing. However I'm not really a very good writer. Therefore my DH and I are collaborating and will try to post a chapter later.


P.S. My DH is quite sceptical about all this "doomer stuff" but he really likes to write so this was a great way to involve him. Get his juices flowing so to speak. So thanx for starting this thread I really appriciate it.


-Matty


edited to add: I know nothing about Florida so our scenario will be set in good ole Texas I hope thats ok .

The night is filled with questions. No way to sleep with all that's going on in the night around us. And the hardest part is the not knowing just what's going on. All of my foolish thoughts and protests about Chubby getting us stocked up for something like this vanish and are replaced with a warm feeling for his thoughtfulness. How could I have been so blind and doubted his intuition?

Finally, sleep does come and the morning is on us before we know it. I go to the kitchen to start some coffee before remembering that we have no power. No big deal I think, I'll just use one of our alcohol stoves. We'll have coffee alright! Nope. The water is also off. There go our bottled water stores. But for how long? I'm thinking I should have taken that shower yesterday after all. I envision some of the scenes from the movie 'Independence Day' and laugh it off while making coffee.

Meanwhile, Chubby has been down to the neighbors to see what's going on with the military invasion. His news doesn't exactly thrill me but I kind of expected it. We have to bugout and fast! What we thought was the military was something entirely different. It's military alright, just not the U.S. military.

Hubby cannot believe that it is not US military. Who could it be? Not a militant US group because they have tanks, etc. How could we have been invaded with no notice. Its not like we are on the beach. If they were off loaded from ships they had to come 60 miles overland and from all reports they came through ocala which is west of us. That means they had to come in from the Gulf. Who are they and why here? Have they gone into the Texas Gulf area too? Chubby Hybby says its too dangerous to just go out on the road. So he and a couple of hunting buddies are going to hike out through the forest at dark. They know this forest well so have that advantage. But if the troops have night vision etc. It scares me to death to have him going out there. It scares me to stay here by myself. There has been some traffic headed into town....but no cars are coming past heading back. I am organizing preps. Anything to keep busy. Poured a gallon of bleach down the well with the hand pump and after dark I will get out there and start pumping. Will take a lot of pumping to get to useable water as we haven't used it at all in 2 years. Don't want to start the generator as it makes noise. We did start it last night and fill water jugs, bath tubs, etc. But in this situation I think it best to be quiet and unseen. Will report on what Hubby finds when he gets back, probably not until early tomorrow am.

In another part of the country

Keith Vantine woke to the sound of a rooster crowing. As he climbed out of bed he had to step over a sleeping dog. He turned on the computer as he went by, heading to the kitchen to make coffee. After dumping the old grounds into the compost bucket he rensed the coffee pot and tossed the water out the back door. Soon the smell of coffee was filling the house as it perked on the gas stove. Keith returned to the computer to find that it was still dark. Once more he tried to turn it on, with no seccess. Slightly perplexed Keith tried a light switch. Nothing. "Damn power Company. We pay them good money and they can't keep the power working." Keith though. "I need some coffee before I start the generator." he thought. Of course this morning the coffee seemed to take forever to perk. Finally, with cup in hand, Keith stepped forth to face the day. They had not used the generator in over a year and had even drained the gas tank so the gas would not go bad from sitting. The gas was stored in a shed away from the house and generator. Keith considered taking the pickup to get the gas, but decided it was more work that just walking down and bringing it back. He did not fill the generator tank all the way full, because they would not need the generator for too long. The power company would have things working again in a few hours. Keith first turned the breakers off at the meter box, this disconnected his house from the power grid, before connecting the generater to the house. Forget this and his little generator would be trying to power up three counties, or the power might come back on and fry his generator. Keith checked the oil, even though the generator had a low oil cut off switch. Keith had a distrust of all things electric and a strond belief in "murphy's Law". After several pulls Keith got exasperates and sprayed the carberator with starting fluid. On the third pull, the dang thing started.
Now the computer came to life. All was well with the world. Then when he tried to connect with the internet it said there was no dial tone. With only one cup of coffe in his veins Keith was in no mood for this stuff. He picked up the phone to find no dial tone. ? "Damn! " he thought. keith gave up on the computer and turned on the TV set, then went into the kitchen for more coffee, this time with a lacing of good whisky. The TV showed only static, no matter which channels Keith tried. Now alarm bells were ringing in Keith's mind. Nothing really solid yet, but there were beginning to be too many thing wrong. Keith woke up his wife Sara. She mumbled "Just ten more minutes." Because Keith did not have real reason to think something was wrong he agreed. Going to the closet Keith took out his Mak-90 AK and put a 30 round mag in it. Paranoid? Probably so, he thought, but it was impossible to go against thirty years of being a survivalist. Keith took his coffee and rifle to the small fallout shelter they had built and turned on the battery powered short wave radio. What he heard chilled him to the bone. Suddenly his coffe tasted bad in his mouth and for a moment he thought he was going to vomit.

Travis knew something wasn't right when He woke up in the small hours of the morning. At first He couldn't pin it down, as He made his way to the bathroom. Hitting the light switch He got His first clue. No power. It seemed strange to Him since the hospital in his back yard had all of the usual lights on, but then He realized, they had their back-up generators. There was something more though. The night time noises didn't sound right. Usually He wouldn't pay it any mind, but tonight seemed different. Dressing in dark clothing He stepped outside and made His way to the third level of the parking garage at the hospital. From that vantage point He could see the near by Interstate, I-75. Now he knew something was wrong. VERY WRONG. Even at this time of the morning there should have been some traffic. Now there was none. And the reason was easily seen. Two tanks sat at either end of the overpass, faceing north and south. Looking a little harder He could see that the markings on them weren't American.

He bolted back to the house with his mind raceing faster than He was. If I-75 were blocked off, so was every other main road leading in and out of town. He smiled to Himself as He remembered for the millionth time what His drill instructor had worked so hard to pound into His head years ago.

"Prior planning prevents pisspoor preformance".

NOW He understood. Before reentering the house He backed his wifes' 4wd suv to the garage door next to his 4wd pick-up. Out of habit, He pushed the button for the door opener. Then, happy that nobody else had seen such a stupid mistake, He went back into the house through the side door, into the garage and pulled the release for the door and threw it up manually.

This isn't going to be easy he thought to himself as he woke Sherry, his wife, and son, Shane. After explaining what was going on, Sherry didn't want to do anything but sit it out.

"It's too dangeruos to try to do anything".
"Maybe. But staying here will most likely get us killed. Now throw some clothes in a bag for each of us while I get things ready".

Signaling their teenage son to follow, Travis went back to the garage.

"Son I want you to fill your mothers car with all of this food you can." He said pointing at the long term storage food they had. It was enought for the three of them to last a year, some would have to be left behind. Then Travis started to load the pick-up with other things. Gas cans went in first, followed by a few tools, and more of the food. He finished it of with the three suitcases that Sherry had brought out of the house. Then went back in to pick up the weapons and all the ammo that he had stored.

"Now what"? She asked.

"Son, you ride with your mother and take these". He said handing over a 9mm pistol and a 12 ga. pump shotgun. "DO NOT use them unless I fire first. Honey, when we leave, no matter what happens, stay on my bumper. DON"T stop for anyone or anything".

Travis then racked the slide on his 1911 A1 .45 A.C.P. and did the same on his M-1 carbine and climbed into the cab. He smiled again. He knew how to get out of town by the back roads. Even though it ment cutting through a fence and dashing across somebodys yard to get where he needed to go. after that it should been fairly clear going to the Ocala Forest.

On the West Coast


What was that, something woke me up, something is different, what, it's so dark, the night light is off, that's what it was, the alarm on the CO detector alarmed. Power is off.

I lay there in bed listening, wondering what time it is. I can here heavy trucks on the roads, I listen closely, maybe there's a fire somewhere, no sirens. I get out of bed and go to the window, take a deep breath, no fire smell; I can here the trucks louder.

Hubby stirs in bed, "Honey, the power went out", he asks me what time it is. "I don't know the power is out".

I step into the master bath to tinkle, I am standing at the wash basin, something is wrong, what is it - I turn to look at the toilet - it didn't refill, I flip on the water faucet, no water.

"Honey, wake up, the water is off too, the power and the water."

Hubby looks up at me, tells me go downstairs, bring up the battery clock.

I go get it, it says it 3:20 a.m.

Well, we might as well get up; we get up at 3:30 anyway. "Honey, do you want me to heat some water for you to shave." No he will skip it today.

He gets ready and I fix his lunch. It feels creepy, both water and power.

He tells me, probably a water main broke and they needed to shut power off to fix it.

He's ready to leave tells me to pad lock the garage if power isn't on when I leave for work. Tells me to get the battery operated 5" b&w TV out and see if anything is reported.

I say goodbye, see ya tonight, have a good day, be safe.

Nothing on the small TV, I'll try the radio, nothing.

I hear the key and door opening, it's hubby, he just scared the hell out of me.

"Honey, what did you forget."

"Nothing, get that radiation thing out and check it" he says.

"What!!!"

"Just do it"

"What did you see"

"There's a tank sitting in the middle of the intersection up by the 7-11"

We can't get anything on the little tv, radio, and on the short wave all we get is static and a word or two here and there.

"Honey, what's going on, do you think I should put the plastic at the windows, we can just take it back down if it isn't anything?"

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON", "yea, go ahead and put the plastic up."

Well, I see, whatever he saw spooked him. OK keep my head, get dressed, put up plastic, put 2 cats in their carriers, gather Bobs, gather camp gear, it's 5 am, starting to get light out.

KOOBOOM, we hear an explosion, gunfire.

We are in the closet under the stairs now, still nothing on the radio.

Ahh what the heck.. I will play along LOL.. never wrote anything before.. here goes.


Jim had been up all night again, Surfing the web as usual. As he reached for his 12th cup of coffee his screens flickered on and off. He thought nothing of it and walked into the kitchen to refill and noticed that the lights had just shut off. Being the prepared type he reached under the kitchen sink in the darkness, grabbed a flashlight and flicked it on. “Hmm”, he thought, “This is odd, better check on my UPS and shut down the machines”. Quickly he walked back the computer room and noticed nothing was on, UPS was off computers off radio off, everything.

Jim walked over and hit the switch on his UPS unit, nothing! He reached over to grab his BayGen radio gave it a few cranks and started tuning around.. all static. Jim was getting worried at this point. He had always been a “prepper” but never thought he would actually see anything like this. He thought to himself “What could it be.. no power no battery in the UPS this is strange”.

Jim picked up his phone to call his friend across town to see if he had any similar issues. “RATS! NO dial tone” he bellowed as he threw the phone down and raced to his closet to grab a weapon. “This doesn’t look good” Jim said to himself. Jim reached into the gun safe pulled out his Mossburg loaded it up and put 6 more rounds in the sidesaddle holster. “better safe than sorry”, he muttered as his dog came racing into the room barking. “What’s up boy?” What’s got you so spooked”? Jim walked over to the window to see his worst fears, Men in BDU’s on the backs of Humvees and trucks riding towards town. Jim thought about walking outside and asking what was up for a second but then thought better of it. Instead, he decided to “bug in” and make some coffee on his propane stove and wait it out. This was it, he always had a fantasy in the back of his mind about what “TSHTF” would be like.. but never like this, this was spooky, almost surreal.

He was awakened from his daydreaming by a knock on the door. His dog started barking as he moved over to answer the door, shotgun in hand, but hidden as to not alarm anyone.

“HEY open up in there.. I know you’re home.. Jim!” yelled the voice outside. Jim smiled as he recognized the shouting voice, it was his next-door neighbors the Martins. With wife and kids in tow, Mike Martin was standing at Jim’s door. Jim opened the door and let them in. “What is up Jim? You hear anything? What the HECK is this?” Mike Martin asked as he took a seat in Jim’s living room with his wife Debbie. Jim looked over out the window again and said “Don’t know Mike.. but it doesn’t look too damn good”.

Mike looked over at Jim sheepishly and asked “Jim, could I get a cup of coffee?” Jim said sure and got him coffee from the kitchen. By the time he had made his way back to the living room the Martin’s kids were playing with Jim’s television. As they clicked every channel was blank but one. The kids stopped as a loud voice gave information and a message scrolled across the screen. Suddenly the room was filled with dread…

What a way to be woken up. Especialy when coming from such a nay-sayer.
My DH just came in and woke me. I'm freaking out on this. It would have been bad enough getting up to find the power, tv, water and radio out. But troops mobilized in my own back yard!
Then to hear this. "Honey you were right." What a shock!
He got up and found the power out and just proceeded to go to work. But on the way, found highway I35 blocked by troops and civilians being truned away. He got herded into Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) in a case of mistaken identity. (His car has the decals from the previous owner on it still, a retired army officer.) He said they were innoculating everyone in sight and then doing a full mobilization. He played along long enough to get the innoculation, create a disturbance, steal some syringes of vaccine, and get out of the tents they had set up on the hospital grounds. They were in a hurry to innoculate everyone and were checking id's after the fact. He cut out of line and snuck around the hospital. He went into the training area and followed Salado creek out of the base.
We don't know what is going on. We're trying to find someone with a shortwave.
Do we take the vaccine? Do we sit tight? Do we run for the hills?
How in the heck are we gonna get outside of loop 1604. It surrounds the entire city and is controlled by armed troops.

-Matty

P.S. DH actually wrote this I just edited and posted it.

It's been 2 hours since we heard the explosion; we come out of the closet. Still nothing on radios or TV. I can see neighbors in the street below my windows. I can't hear what they are saying because of the plastic.

Hubby and I discuss possibilities; neither of us wants to go outside to ask the neighbors what they might know.

Ok, I will suit up in my little white chem suit and crack the window upstairs, call down to them and get the scoop.

I don my get up, hubby and I start laughing at how I look, my white chem suit, booties, home depot breathing filter thing, we put the .01 micron mask over the filters on each side, I also put a mask over each ear, goggles, hubby gets the camera, takes a couple of pictures of me.

I looked so funny, we just keep laughing, you know the kind of laughing, you either laugh or you cry.

Maybe I was just being silly with all this stuff. Just in case we put up plastic on the outside of the bedroom door.

I stepped in and closed the door behind me. Peeled a small part of the plastic way from the window and cracked the window just a bit. I left the binds down, so my neighbors couldn't really see me. Well, if they saw me, it would probably scare the shit out of them. I saw me, and it scared me.

"Hey there, up here at the window, what's going on?"

"Come on out, we're all out here."

"I'm not dressed yet, what's happening?" Not dressed yet, if they could see this get up.

There's a tank up the street; it's a quarantine. We can't leave and nobody can come in."

"A quarantine for what, and what was that explosion?"

"We don't know, there is suppose to be a radio broadcast at 8 am, someone tried to run the blockade and the tank blew up the car."

I hollered thanks as I slammed the window shut and pushed the plastic back to the window. My heart was racing, I could see down the street about a dozen people lingering about. A quarantine, and these people are out in the street. Just then my mind was racing, I should have duct tapped the seams on this suit and I should have put a plastic shower cap over my hair. The beads of sweat had popped out when I heard quarantine, I could feel them trickling down the back my neck. I also realized I had been trying to hold my breath, I started talking to my self. Take it easy Holly; just relax a bit, breath normally.

I stepped to the door, and as calmly as I could, said "Honey, can you hear me?" It came out in a shrill voice that scared me even more.

I could hear hubby start moving the plastic from the door, yelling at me "what is it?" panic in his voice.

I hollered back, STOP, listen to me. I told him what I was told. Then told him to get a spray bottle filled with water and bleach from the 5 gal containers in the middle bathtub and the bleach under the sinks in the middle bath, place it next to the door. Get 2 5gal buckets and fill them half way with water and a good amount of bleach, put these in the middle bath, remove the rugs from the middle bath and the master bath rooms. Then fill the 5gal shower bag with just water and place it in the master bath. Fill another spray bottle with water and bleach and leave it in the middle bath.

"Go downstairs and wait for me"

I snatched the spray bottle from the door, started spraying the plastic at the window, spraying me, spraying the air, everything. After I doused myself and was dripping bleach water, I moved to the middle bath, stripped out of my outfit as best I could and shoved it all in the buckets of bleach water. Closed the middle bath behind me. Went to the master bath, stepped into the shower and released the water bag shower. My mind racing, the water was cold, I kept scrubbing. Oh no, hubby was out in it when he left for work. I used all 5 gal of water, I tried twice to shut it off, just couldn't, needed to keep scrubbing. On my way downstairs I grabbed some hand lotion, my skin was bright red from scrubbing so hard. Told hubby he had to do the same, now. He did, the time was 7:30 am. While he showered, I started spraying everything with bleach water, mentaly adding up how much water we had used from our stored supply.

The time is 7:55; we hear the emergency broadcast signal on the radio now.

As he peered down the slope of a small hill, Travis paused to wipe the sweat from his brow. He couldn't believe it. He had thought it would have taken about 2 maybe 2 1/2 hours to get to the woods. Here it was 5 hours later and they were still on the road. 5 HOURS. He cursed himself for not taking into account that he would be stopping aways back from every intersection that they came to in order to have a look before trying to cross. Now he found what he had been fearing.

He knew an invadeing force, or even American forces in the case of martial law, wouldn't have the manpower to guard every podunk town and cow path. But right up there, not two hundred yards away was a armored personnel carrier with a man sitting behind a heavy machinegun watching both north and south on highway 441. True he was coming from the west, but he still had to make it through that intersection. Again he wiped the sweat away from his eyes. It was hot and going to get hotter. That was sure to make the men in uniform up there short tempered.

As he thought about possibly going back the way he had come and try another route he saw movement in the brush to the right of the intersection. He scanned the area with the binoculars. Sure enough, some of the locals were as unhappy with the situation as he was. He could see them creeping forward with weapons in their hands. So far the brush kept them screened from the men in the apc.

Suddenly he saw one of the uniforms go down. followed a second later by the boom of a shotgun. The machinegunner swung around and opened up, cutting brush down as he sprayed the area. One local went down followed by another as they tryed to fight off the invaders.

Travis had been prepared. He picked up the scope mounted rifle next to him and sighted. The weapon barked once and the machinegun went silent. Without heavy firepower to back them up the out manned squad soon found themseles on the losing end of the fight, but Travis didn't wait to see it. He was already moving with Sherrys' suv close behind. They had to slow down to get around the apc in the road, but never stopped.

As he left the intersection he looked in the mirror to see if his wife and son made it. He watched as a uniformed man reached out to grab at the vehicle, and then saw him fall back as Shanes shotgun boomed in his face. Another uniform stepped into the road behind him and started to fire at the suv. Sherry hammered the gas.

A mile down the road Travis pulled over to check his family. They were shaken, but otherwise O.K. Once more they started towards the woods. Thankful that so far only the bad guys were getting hurt. Well mostly the bad guys he thought as he remember the two men that had gone down attacking the apc.

Taz - what cities are we going to assume to be locked down? At the rate we're going, we'll more than use up every professional soldier on the planet (and more than a few PA terrorists ) to cordon off everybody's hometowns. Positive side-effect, national conflicts will cease to exist...

Any thoughts? If ya want, I could set up some specific scenarios, according to who has already written...eXe's character got EMP'd, Mattie's bunch got hit w/ a bio-war weapon, a few more have foreign troops...

So, in affected cities, the utilities are down and out. Several cities have different crises...and TB2K's "intel weenies" are going spastic putting pins in maps...

I post that and now suddenly I can't get on TB2K chat - no irc server, it appears - can't get on my Delphi forum, can't access the Outlands site, can't access *any* website, not even ebay! Why can I still access this board if everything is snarled?

Gettin' a wee bit paranoid...

Any thoughts? If ya want, I could set up some specific scenarios, according to who has already written...eXe's character got EMP'd, Mattie's bunch got hit w/ a bio-war weapon, a few more have foreign troops...

Well have at it. Day Late is headed my direction now that he is across Hwy 441. There are obviously "awakenings" in other areas of the country. Chubby Hubby came home and said that its US troops that are bivowaced on the edge of the Marshall swamp west of us about one mile as crow flys.

I just get SUCH a kick out of doing these "stories" and we haven't done one in soooooo long. The newbies have never had the pleasure or the education from one of our tales. So set it up however you want outlands and it can go in any directions its taken. I love it~
Taz

Taz,

Wait till you see what I have planned for our first meeting. BTW Travis, et. al. are the names of some very good friends of mine.

You asked for it...

Ok, I'm hip-deep in it right now...

Ok Round 2..

“A nuclear detonation has taken place in the area of northern California and various parts of the United States. We also suspect some other Weapons of mass destruction have been deployed. Please stay inside unless requested to by the United States military or police. The President has assumed control of all transportation; including all commercial vehicles, all US, Interstate and most state highways, all airports and aircraft, all railroads, all waterways and all commercial vessels. Private citizens are prohibited from carrying firearms in public. There is a curfew from 8 PM to 8 am.” The emergency message droned on and on. Jim could not believe this was happening right before his eyes. He remembered 9/11 and felt some fear that day but not like this. This was different; this was in fact “TEOTWAWKI”.

Mike and his wife were freaking out at this point. They looked at Jim for answers as to what to do next. Jim was prepared but it was still a shock. Jim lead the family down to his basement. As Mike entered he could not believe his eyes. “Jesus Jim, what on earth were you planning for, this place looks like NORAD for God’s sake” Jim just smiled and turned on the generator from inside, kicked on the radio and ham gear, opened an old green ammo can and tossed Mike a bottle. “What’s this?” Mike asked. “Just take it, one tablet for you and Debbie and break one in half for the kids, Its KI man, potassium iodide, It will help you fight off the radiation.” “What are you nuts, you are no doctor I’m not taking this stuff” make whined. “Look man, do you want to live or die, I studied this stuff, I know what I am doing, now take it” Jim said loudly. From another container Jim pulled out a CD V-715 Civil Defense High-Range Survey Meter. Jim carefully took readings around the basement to make sure it was safe while the Martins looked on in amazement “Jim I never asked you this but were you in the army or something?” asked Debbie. “Naaa, just used to read up on this stuff on the net, Been studying it since 1998. “Wow that’s impressive, I know now why you warned us to have some food and water Jim” said Mike nervously. “Well did you listen?” asked Jim. “Yes but I don’t know if its still safe, plus its all the way back at my house, I don’t want to walk back to the house alone who knows what will happen” said Mike. “We can deal with that later” said Jim as he unlocked another room in the basement.

By now, the Martin’s kids were starting to get a bit upset at all this. At first it seemed like some kind of game they were playing but now they knew by the look in the Adults face something was terribly wrong. “Daddy are we going to die?” asked Greg the Martin’s older son. “No Greg, we are not going to die” said Mike nervously as Jim started to unload the food from the other room.

By the time the food was unloaded into the main room in the basement it looked more like a Costco than a basement. Mike was shocked one person could manage to store this much food and water. “Hey Jim, what about looters? Do you think we have to worry” asked Mike. Jim walked to the far end of the room, opened another small locked door and showed Mike the Armory he had built. There were about 20 to 30 different weapons on the wall, ammo neatly packed in cans and reloading gear everywhere. “Mike you ever shoot a gun?” asked Jim. “No Debbie is scared of em, she would never let me get one” said Mike while staring at the colossal collection of firepower Jim had assembled. Jim handed Mike a Glock 17 and 4 full mags and said “Only if I start shooting ok, don’t go off and play Rambo on me alright?” “Yeah sure no problem” Mike said as Jim showed him how to rack the slide and load the weapon. One thing for sure, They were in this for the long haul.

All of the sudden they could hear walking, creaking on the floorboards.. someone was inside the house….

So far today things are quite and appear normal other than there is no traffic out by the road. We took the 4x4and headed off through the forest and darted quickly across Hwy 40 to get to friends back in the forest on another farm. Bud is a surveyor and knows the forest like no one else. He also is an artifact hunter and was born and raised here as was his wife Bonnie. We gathered them up and headed back across 40 and into the depths of the forest on roads that I had never knew existed. But since Bud did the surveying for the National Forest, he knows them all. Or so we thought. LOL We got soooo lost but finally made our way out and home through some back roads that we did know. We saw only one pickup with a young family in it. They were very wary of talking with us but it was obvious that they knew something was up. When we started to move on, the young father said that it was all clear up ahead of us and that he had seen no one. Thats all he would allude to and we too didn't feel like babbling to him. So Hubby backed up a bit and said that the direction he was headed was clear as far as we knew. But hell there are so many roads going in so many directions, if you have 4 wheel drive, that there could be an army back there and you not know it. Of course that works both ways.
Its very dry in the woods and all the small lakes and swamps are dried up. This is our 4th or 5th year of drought. We did find a few spring fed lakes where one could camp if you have to, but not like a few years ago where every pot hole was a small lake or pond.
We arrived home safely and actually took a swim. No sense hiding under the bed yet. Day Late always said that he would head our direction if TSHTF. So I expect he and his family to come rolling in here, one way or another, in the next 24 hrs. We have tons of room in the house and the big 5th wheel, so beds are not a problem. And I know he will have all his preps and guns etc. It will be nice to have another set of eyes and ears and another woman in the house. Wonder who else will show up? I wonder IF they should come here. But I don't know of any place safer than the forest unless one could get up into the Carolinas. We don't know what is going on yet or who is enemy or who is foe. No one has seen Cedric since he headed for the armory in town.

Taz

Good God almighty.

I woke up from a really rough dream earlier than usual today. Rebecca was already outside in the garden, hard at work - or communing with the plants, I'm not sure which. Keera was still asleep in the bed, getting her 2-year-old "daddy snuggles," tucked up with her head in my armpit. I planted my customary kisses in her hair, marvelling at the innocense and peace. She didn't understand how must of the world hated us just because we were Americans or just because of our religious beliefs.

I envied her.

I carefully slipped out of bed and turned the computer on, then started getting dressed. I peeked out the window, spotting Bec out in the "pea-garden" on her knees, weeding. Funny - the blessing of good growing dirt that almost threw plants into the air did the same for the weeds, so it was a race to keep the "unwanteds" out long enough for the "wanteds" to get their toe-hold.

Digging in the cabinet, I dug out ttwo bags of cereal - WalMart fakes of Cap'n Crunchberries and Frosted MiniWheats. I opted for the miniwheats and carried the bowl back to the computer. Maybe my crunching wouldn't wake the baby. It was only 7:30...she would probably sleep for another 2 hours if no one was loud.

I hit my dialup account, heading for the 'net. First stop - the state of South Dakota's "Homeland Advisory" webpage. The "alert Button" was still yellow, of course. Severl of us have joked regularly about they'd only change it to orange 2 hours after a nuke actually detonated in DC.

Get New Mail? The "yes" button really should read "DUH!" While the mail downloaded, I headed for the TB2K board. My puter is slow when I try to get two different downloads going at once, so stuffing a few miniwheats down was in order.

They almost came right back up when I looked up at the screen and saw the "Alert" banner across the top of the screen. The adrenaline kicked in and I could feel my heartrate rev up, even before I knew what was going on. Was it a drill? Not likely - Kris always warns folks ahead of time before he runs one. Surprise drill? I sure hoped so - kinda "dirty tricks" in a way, but it is a good thing to do from time to time - shake everyone up and make them pay attention.

My armpits were already soaked.

<Brkng>Foreign Troops in FLA!

<BrkgNews>Bio-hit in Texas-Mass Vacc's

<War>Cali nuked???

In every thread, Hams had gotten the word out of the affected zones and our TB2K hams had gotten the details - such as they knew - posted. Chuck and crew were no doubt busy putting pins in maps, marking the places they knew were hazardous and making their best guesses about everything else. Where were the Chinese troops? So many reports had Chinese troops along the borders in Mexico and Canada. Russian missiles and Chinese troops - wasn't that the biggest rumor? Domestic terrorists hitting the "Great Satan's" soft underbelly...

Shreveport was no doubt gone. Well, Barksdale ought to be. Any base that is the HQ of a numbered Air Force ought to be on the target-list of whoever makes a move.

Why now? What happened, or is about to happen, that made them move against us now?

I resign myself to never knowing and start cataloging the damage. Lots of "bright flashes" seen in the skies over California can only give strong circumstantial evidence to the use of nukes. No one has heard a radio operator on the air from the west coast. Not surprisingly, no one really wants to drive over there and check. I hope eXe had a rig stashed in some sort of Farraday Cage and waits a while to dig it out and start broadcasting. It probably was a bunch of sub-launched missiles used in the air as EMP generators.

Texas operators are reporting mass innoculations of military personnel - but no idea against what. Considering the vaccine-cocktails they pumped into me in boot-camp, it's gotta be something new and nasty. Wonder when they released that lovely bug on us? Wonder how many *other* places have been bug-ridden? What about water supplies for the major cities?

Florida - are the troops speaking Spanish? Chinese? Has anyone gotten close enough to find out? Surplus "antique" armor is so easy to come by if you have a little money, but the biggest gun I can figure anyone obtaining easily would be machinegun parts kits. Anything bigger than that requires governmental intervention - or theft, but then ammo becomes a problem.

I yell for Bec to come inside and pass on the bad news. She turns on the radio. There's a recorded message playing - oh, it's the EBS working - instructing everyone to tune to the ConElRad AM stations for news and instructions. She does and we find it's "pre-chewed BS" - "the authorities are handling everything ... stay where you are and cooperate ... await local instructions..."

I start hitting my favorite online hobby-shops and capturing pictures of military equipment. It takes a little while, but I get a decent web-page up on the Outlands for folks to compare what they see in action so they can tell who they are facing. It isn't perfect, but it's better than anything else I can think of. I post links to the page everywhere I can think of - maybe someone w/ net access will be able to pass their info on.

I wonder how the militia group over towards Shreveport is doing. I suspect they've already gone around their bend and are hollering it's all a govt conspiricy. Assuming they aren't radioactive dust by now.

Bet that does the folks in Cali a whole lotta good. And who *are* the authorities in Ocala? Wonder if anyone is organizing a resistance there?

Alas Babylon posted - but just his name. Wonder how many people get the reference?

I start a new thread:

<Planning>Areas to check for Hams.

All you hams!
Please see if you can contact hams in New Orleans, Mobile, Galveston/Houston, Seattle, Charleston, Boston areas. These are major port areas and I haven't seen any mention of them yet. Are they still in operation/existence? Are they controlled by US or foreign? Also - border areas - watch for heavy military transport "inland" from Cda and MX. Please refer ham contacts to my "nationality/equipment origins ID" page.

Wish I had gotten my license - thanks guys!
=====

Getting offline, I sit and stew. Was OKC on the hit-list? I grab the phone and try to call dad. Of course, neither cell-phone number goes thru - "all circuits are busy." I try to call grandma's but the long-distance circuits are out of service. She's in God's hands one way or another and I know she expects me to look after my family here. I try dad's house - even the instate circuits are busy. I'm not sure the 60-mile drive is safe. I'm not even sure the 20-mile drive to WalMart is safe. I call WalMart's number and get a busy signal. Well, I didn't have the money to go buy anything anyway.

I tell Bec to call our friends at the end of the road while I load the shotguns with #00 buckshot. We have ammo for one of the rifles and both pistols. It'll do - the three oldest here have guns they can handle. I stage the ammo where it's easy to reach. The medical box gets set out, too.

That's the best I can do. Now, we wait...

Cedric's wife just came boiling down the road. She had heard from Cedric on a military radio he has at home. Says that the group at Marshall swamp are the reservists and some active army. Definitly US troops hunkering there. He is in the process of getting all the NG guys in and getting all the arms, vechicles, etc out of the armory. Said they would be heading out here for the forest. Had already sent the first group off and would be touching base with those at the east end of the Marshall swamp but that his group was headed up to the NE area where the natural gas pipe line goes down the spine of the state. His group would be protecting the pipe line. Even he doesn't know who the enemy is yet. Did know about nuke in California but that was all. We told Liz, his wife she and kids could stay here. But she is going back home. They live far off the road and have access to the river if they needed it. Her folks were there at her house. And she said she had guns and ammo and knew how to use them. "Just be nice to know who you are shooting at!" I asked about food and she said they still have all their y2k preps and the garden was overflowing. I hiked up the road a little while ago to an old guy who is a ham. But he wasn't there so didn't get any info. Got out the SW radio and all I can get is the usual hysterical chatter out of Cuba. And my spanish is not that good.

Taz

Commo.

I tell Bec to tell Ginny she needs to turn on one of their FRS handhelds. I go get one of ours and try it out. Thankfully, they work fine. We've got four and they have two. Told her load her rifle, too...just in case.

We are so far out back of beyond that I can't really see anyone worried about us as it is. I *am* worried about terrorist/commando strikes on the Mississippi River crossings, nuke-plants, the Mississippi River Control Structure, the hydro-dams out west...

Well, I can't do anything for them but pray.

Hope the neighbors all get home from work okay. With three of the guys all working in the same streets dept. in town, they'll pretty well know what's going on of any one of them hears anything. They all hunt, too, so that helps out with being armed.

I get my quad-maps out for our area, just to have them handy. I do what I figure Chuck and others are doing - I start sticking pins into my wall-map of the USA - white for nukes, red for enemy troops, green for bio-strikes. I hope I don't run out of pins...

Ah-ha...ConElRad is finally catching up with TB2K - about 3 hours late. The official on the radio made his official announcement:

"A nuclear detonation has taken place in the area of northern California and various parts of the United States. We also suspect some other Weapons of mass destruction have been deployed. Please stay inside unless requested to by the United States military or police. The President has assumed control of all transportation; including all commercial vehicles, all US, Interstate and most state highways, all airports and aircraft, all railroads, all waterways and all commercial vessels. Private citizens are prohibited from carrying firearms in public. There is a curfew from 8 PM to 8 am."

Martial law. Glad I wasn't planning to go into town. Being unemployed is looking like a blessing at this point. Wonder about the 24-hr plants and their crews...like the papermill. Are they gonna have to shut down for 12 hours a day or will they get special permission and travel-papers for their shift-workers?

I try our local Civil Defense office on a whim. Busy. Like I'm surprised by that.

I grab one of the FRS units and the 870 and walk our property line. Not that I'll encounter anything, being this far out in the woods, but you never know...

Keith sat stunned at what he was hearing on his short wave. A lot of it made no sence. Apparently somebody had attacked the US. There may have been more than one nuclear explosion. The president had declared maritial law. All this seemed to have happen while he slept. For a time Keith just sat there, his mind a blank. Then the sound of the generater got through to him. "Wasting Gas !" he thought. "Got to get more information" he muttered to himself. Taking their radiation meter from a metal box, Keith switched it on. Normal background radiation. Outside the shelter it was the same. "We are still Ok on that one, at least for now." thought keith. He returned the rad gear to it's steel box that was grounded to a steel rod driven into the ground. Might not stop a EMP, but it was better than nothing.
Thinking once again, Keith did not turn off the generater, but used it instead to run the well pump to top off their water storage tank. Rushing into the bed room He woke his wife with the news. At first she did not believe him, but something in his voice told her that it was all too true. "As soon as the water tank is full, turn the generater off" he ordered.
Stepping outside once again Keith surveyed his place. Upon retirement Keith and his wife had bought 40 acres in a very rural valley in the Missouri Ozarks. It had been keith's goal to turn it into a self sufficient survival retreat, camoflauged as a hobby farm.
With the two of them doing the work, it had progressed slowly.
Now as Keith looked around he wanted to kick himself for all the days he had taken off working on the place, for evey dinner eaten out. There was so much more to be done. The gas generater sputtered and kicked off. "Why didn't we get a diesel generater?" keith thought. Still, for all his kicking himself they were far nore prepared than most people. Away from population centers, and military targets, their place was about as good a site as possible. They had stored food, enough for a year, for 8 people. They had a garden and a dozen raised beds to produce food, thirty laying chickens and a small herd of milk goats. Keith felt like the survivalist in the movie "Tremors". He had prepared for almost everything, except what had actually happened.
"So many projects not finished" Keith thought. "OK. one step at a time".
Keith got out a pick and shovel and began to dig next to the shed that housed the generater. " What are you doing?" Sara asked. " I am digging a hole to bury a 55 gallon drum. We have got to silence that generater." Keith replied. "I have some flex exhaust tubing that I will run to the drum from the generater. I will use plain pipe out the other side of the drum to the surface. The drum will act like a huge muffler for the generater." Keith said. Keith hoped it would really work. he had read about it on a survivalist board, but had never done it. In theory it should work.
"What should I do?" Sare asked. "Fill all the kerosene lamps and lanterns." "Maybe organise the fallout shelter. We have a lot of stuff in there that doesn't belong there." "Oh. Start wearing you pistol." Keith answered.
"What about our family?" asked Sara , voicing Keiths own worst fears.
"Prey" was his only answer.

Sherry had spent the last thirty minutes thinking very dark thoughts. She had no choice. The three bullet holes in the windshield screamed at her as the wind whistled through them. She hadn't ment to hit that man. But when Shane had fired at something, she had looked at him briefly, and when she looked back, there he was. She was going to stop, to avoid hitting him. Then he had fired at her. At them. She couldn't let this man hurt her baby. She paniced and floored it. She thought he would move, but the suv leaped forward and there was no time. She shook her head for the hundredth time to clear the vision that just wouldn't go away. It didn't help this time either. She looked at Shane and wondered what he must think of her, but didn't say anything.

Shane had his own thoughts. He had read books, seen the movies, and imagined what it was like just as many young men do. But this wasn't what he had thought it was like at all. He had killed a man. He put the barrel in his face and pulled the trigger. There was no doubt the man was dead. He had seen what happened. He knew the man was dead. This wasn't what he had imagined at all.

Travis was at last relaxed a little. They had pulled into the forest a few miles back and he had wasted no time getting off the main roads and on to a jeep trail that didn't show up on any maps. He headed down the trail a little further before coming to a stop. Hearing the familiar sound of helicopters, He looked up. There they were. Five attack helicopters headed north. Probably to Camp Blanding he thought. Yet he was saddened by the sight. When he had seen them before, headed southeast, there were six of them with full payloads of missles and rockets. Now there were five. One was plainly haveing control problems, and another was trailing smoke. They no longer had any missles of any kind. Travis said a quick prayer for the safety of the men up there, and another one for the men that hadn'd returned.

For now though he had to decide something. He knew Taz wasn't too far away. But he had family south of S.R. 40. Where to go first? Really there was no choice. He turned south and started moving again. The suv followed.

Bump

Meanwhile on the NORTH Coast.....

"Breeep Breeep Breeep" the alarm goes off and I reach up to swat it for another 9 minutes. Not for the first time do I wish that my CPAP machine were here. Haven't had a goods night's sleep in I don't know how long.

"Breeep Breeep Breeep" "OH ALL RIGHT!!" "Honey it's 6:30. Time to get up and shower." And we both roll out of bed. The next half hour is the usual blur of oatmeal, shower, shave etc. Unlike most mornings the radio and tv are off since neither one of us needs the noise.

As we pull out of the driveway I come to a screeching halt and pull back into the driveway in a HURRY. THERE'S A FRELLING APC at the south end of the street! Grab the small binocs from my purse, split a pair of FRS's, and give the other pair of 10X25's to RELIC, and we start skulking the neighborhood. She checks the side street while I edge along my house to where I can see North up the street, to see if I can see anything under the RR underpass or on the Shoreway. I can NOT see anything under the RR underpass but I CAN see that nothing is moving on the Shoreway. UN-GOOD! VERY UN-GOOD!

RELIC reports that the side street is clean, so I turn around and lean my nose around the house looking South, see that I can't see anything and move to an ornamental thorn-apple tree as cover, and get a good look at the APC and its attendants. I'm very much wanting to see their faces, and, LO, just as I ask, one turns around and I see he is NOT wearing a gas mask. That being the GOOD news the BAD news is he's not wearing any US uniform I'm familiar with. And his APC does NOT have US markings. From where I stand, the 5 of them are staying put with the APC.

RELIC has already gone inside and started to pullout the armaments (such as they are: a couple HighPoints, an 870, and a couple pistols) by the time I get inside they are laid out on the couch, and she is finishing the planned final buff and polish on the BOB's. Neither of us PLANS on bugging out at this stage but it doesn’t hurt to have things ready.

As I check my watch we are 10 minutes into the 20-to-run that we have allocated ourselves, and we haven't started loading the cars with cats, food, tools, etc. We look at each other, because the 10-minute point is decision point. Bug or Hunker? Shane's V-717 (finally won SOMETHING) is reading background, the troops are NOT in CBW gear, and we have NO clue as to what and why, so we decide to Hunker. The plywood for the front windows is on the porch already so we start zip-screwing that in place. Having it all precut is a JOY so that all we have to do is lift it, hold it and zip-screw it. (GOD but I LOVE drywall screws!)

The Living Room windows and the windows over the computer are next, zipzip, lift zipzip, and so on. We decide to hold off on the rest of the windows and figure it's time to check in with the Board.


DAMN! Nukes in the West, invasion troops in Fla and Tx, bio in the south! And foreign troops in the North Coast. After reviewing the posting, I leave RELIC to collect the data into something more cohesive while I change my clothes. Somehow going to work at the new job isn't going to make it today. RELIC gets a quick kiss and I am out the back door, HighPoint and pistol, along with a small back pack and spare ammo. My trusty RAZOR scooter is in the pack as I cross the neighbor's lawn and head South on the side street.

I get to Euclid Ave, and look East and see that the APC is still there and hasn't been reinforced so there are about 5 troops with it. Looking West I don't see anyone, and the lack of traffic means that there MUST be some armor that way. I am MUCH more interested in the I-271 entry ramp to the East. So my cardiac rehab kicks in and I go back down the side street and scooter around the APC and come up off of Tungsten, East of the APC. I can see most of the way to the Interstate and don't see any armor yet, so I scooter on down to ward the on ramp.

About 2 blocks away I can see that there are at least TWO APC's in the intersection, closing down the south-bound on ramp. This suggests that there will be two more closing the north/East-bound ramp. These guys are not rocket scientists so I can slid up the hill and look down on them without their noticing. The view form the top of the hill is really very good. The yutzes, having set up in the lowest point in the intersection, have set up their chairs, and opened up BOTH APC's to the breezes. These guys aren't on duty, they're on a frelling PICNIC!! The only thing missing is the fire and the hotdogs! This is NOT a bad thing mind you I WANT them non-chalant. How else am I going to steal their APC??

Time to check in with RELIC via FRS, which only JUST makes the trip. She is doing fine, and nothing has changed there. SO I invite her up to where I am and she pedals her bike up to the vicinity, and joins me on the hill. After 2 minutes of discussion we decide she will work left to right and I will work right to left, but the first targets are the troops on the MC guns on the 2 APC's. On my count we take the 2 gunners out and start working our way through the "troops". 5 shots each take us 15 seconds total and there are 10 bodies in the road and no shots at us.

We freeze and wait five minutes for the sky to fall, reinforcements to pop out of the roadway or an enterprising non-com to come up behind us. When none of this happens we go down to inspect OUR NEW APC's. And what we find there sets us close to weeping.

These troops are part of a HUGE invasion force, covering all of the major Lake Ports, or so the maps in the APC indicate. From the maps, we glean that they are using the Port of Cleveland, Port of Willowick, Port of Toledo and Erie as points of entry, and that they plan a dash south along I-71, I-77, and I-75, and I-79 to cut the country in half.

And it just might work.

Somewhat to the north and east of Taz...

Christ it was hot. I was regretting having talked my wife into not using the a/c at night since it was making for miserable sleeping conditions. Don't know when I finally did doze off but it seemed like it couldn't have been for very long when someone pounded on the back door and my heart leapt into my mouth! My first truly conscious thought found me standing in the hallway with a revolver in my hand and no conscious recollection of having gotten out of bed. Why they Hell hadn't the dogs barked? I was just doing a low peek around the corner to look at the back door where the pounding had come from when I heard Andy's voice call out "Alan! Wake up!" My blood pressure dropped ten healthy points as I stood up and glanced at the battery operated kitchen clock while walking towards the door to let him in. OK, the dog hadn't barked in the night because it was my brother…

"Andy, damnit, it's midnight and I *just* got to sleep! What's up?" He looked up at the clock and said, "Your clock's wrong. It's 2:30 a.m. and there's some serious shit going down." My brother works for the state forestry service and had the evening shift but I couldn't figure what could be so urgent that he had to drive all the way out here to tell me about it in the middle of the night. "So what's happening?," I asked grumpily, "Y'all got another 'controlled burn' get out of control in a big way like last time and you had to wake me up to tell me all about it?" There being no brush near to my house such a fire would have been a non-urgent event.

He glanced at the pistol as I was holstering it and said, "Don't put that away, we may need it." and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. He continued, "The whole Forestry Service radio network is down and so is all the city, county and state emergency services networks. WRUF-AM is the only commercial radio station that's still on air that we could find. I was just about ready to go off shift at 11:00 when we got something off the relay that one of the air bases up in the Panhandle was going to Red Alert and then another one that McDill down in Tampa was too then the entire damn console shorted out all to Hell and we lost power. I was up on the roof helping change over to the emergency antenna when we saw the horizon to the southwest and northwest light up. Alan, I think McDill and Eglin have been nuked!"

I absorbed this for a moment and said, "OK Andy, I *know* I bored you stiff when I was writing that Forever After story for the TB2K board way back when and now you've paid me back so we're even now. I'm too awake to go back to sleep anytime soon so since you're here we might as well have a drink." I was turning to open the kitchen cabinet for the Evan Williams when Libby came in about and said, "Andy, are you going to help me carry this stuff in or not?" He glanced at her, then back to me and said, "Alan, I'm dead serious. There's convoys of armored vehicles moving north on I-75 right now, I think out of Tampa. They DON'T have U.S. markings, in fact they look like Russian equipment but they don't have Russian markings either. I hung around work until it was plain from what we could make out of the hash on the radio frequencies that something heavy was going down. I left, went home loaded up Libby and our stuff and headed here. Some sort of armored scout car was just pulling off the Archer road ramp on I-75 just as we went past. I don't know how they could have offloaded their equipment and gotten this far north in the time since the nukes went off but there it was. It stopped right in the middle of Archer road. If we'd been a minute later we'd have been on the wrong side of the Interstate trying to find another way to get here."

I opened the cabinet door and took down the liquor bottle, then opened the refrigerator freezer for the ice. The flipping power *was* out but there was just enough moonlight coming in to be able to see, "OK, I can see you've been working this one up for a long time and won't be happy until you've played it out so let's sit and you can finish your story" and I sat down. "Damn it Alan! Get your radios out and check it out for yourself if you don't believe me!", he shouted in my face, "I didn't come out here to play some stupid practical joke!" Jo came in, blinking sleepily, tying the sash of her housecoat and said, "Hi Libby, hi Andy. Please stop shouting or you'll wake up the baby. What's this about the radios?"

The hair on the back of my neck stood up again as I picked up the phone receiver and heard a strange hiss. I went into the bedroom and got the radio can out of the cabinet, popped the lid and pulled out the little Sony shortwave receiver and began running the FM, then AM bands. I heard a lot of hiss and static where I should have been hearing the big Gainesville stations. I brought up WRUF 850AM just in time to hear, "…the next broadcast will be at the top of the hour at 3:00 a.m. Tune in at that time for further warnings and advisories" and the air went dead.

"Son of a bitch.", I said in a voice of soft wonder…

It had been a long night in the ER ward , with several auto accidents out on I-75, that kept everyone at full speed . So it was no wonder we were all beat and looking forward to our relief shift at 7 A.M. Trying to forget the pain and misery we had seen in the past 8 hours is not easy .... ...Peeling off our scrubs and talking about the night and just winding down in general ,gathering our things,punching the time clock and heading towards the door we notice a crowd of those who had already beat us on the way out ,held up at the entrance ,with quite a bit of noise Please ,please don't let there be another emergency .I'm thinking. Today is our daughter's graduation and I really need to get some rest.. ..What was going on ? Lou was yelling at some policeman with drawn gun on the outside of door as we came up .."what's going on here ,Lou ?" Would you believe they say we are confined to hospital till further notice ? Some national emergency and the next shift can't get here so we are it ? No one will say anything more - Lou hollered at them , hey you ,who's in charge here ,I'm not taking your word for this till I see some orders !!! Then the shock of seeing an APC come up the driveway and uniformed troops scrambling to cover all exits !!! I must be dreaming!! The troop leader spoke to the policeman in charge and motioned the cops to leave ...armed guards with guns drawn stepped up to the door barring our way ...Although we shouted through the door asking questions they just stood blank face and stared at us ...what is going on ??

“Ok everyone stay put” Whispers Jim as the Martins sit quietly. Jim racks a round of 00 buck into the shotgun as quietly as he can and walks to the door of the basement. “Zulu delta six, this is Comms over” crackles over a radio in the house somewhere. Jim listens closer and hears another voice “Comms this is Zulu delta six no friendly repeat no friendlies present over”

“Roger Zulu delta six Proceed to checkpoint Alpha Bravo for debrief over”

“Afirm at 06:30 Hours Zulu D Six copies, out”

Jim hears what seem to be about 4 pairs of feet shuffle out of the house. “Jim what the heck was that?” asks Mike. Jim holding his finger over his mouth turns and opens the door slowly. “All clear” whispers Jim as he closes the door, this time dead bolting it.

Hours pass with news on the ham bands about a nukes and bombs and urban legends. Nothing on the AM or FM Band as of yet, and the same EAS warning over and over on the one working tv station. They decide its time to eat but nothing to heavy, as they may have to be on the move quickly. Jim fires up the wood stove in the corner with his stockpiled wood in the basement and they begin cooking some Chef Boy Ardee, Not the best meal but heck.. the kids are happy.

2 Hours later a knock at the front door of the basement. Everyone looks to Jim as if to say “What do I Do?” Jim walks over with still loaded shotgun points it at the door and says nothing. “Yo G, I think this is cool man.. no one is home” Shouts the voice on the other side. “Yeah we can chill here till this blows over man. No one home here” says another voice. Jim starts weighing the value of telling his new found houseguests to get lost or just ignoring them and letting them fall asleep. “Ok Mike come here, I don’t know who’s out there but I want them gone.. Back me up and we will check it out” Says Jim as he walks up the stairs. “Uhh ok I guess” says Mike.

Jim opened the door and peeked into what was once his living room. Things had been tossed around a bit but it was none the worse. Suddenly a young 20something popped his head out of the living room and said “Oh man someone’s home lets get outta here” His comrade, hearing the announcement, jerked quickly and came into sight. “Who the hell are you?” He shouted loudly. Jim walked further into the living room with shotgun raised and yelled “This is my place what are you doing here?” The first kid was transfixed by the shotgun and could not speak while his buddy looked around for cover and yelled “Yo man.. we don’t want no trouble, we just need a place to lie low man”. “Well look elsewhere this place is taken” said Jim as he walked toward them in a aggressive manner. Both kids backed slowly away and to the door. They hit the door and ran like they had seen a ghost. “Stupid kids almost got themselves shot” said Jim as he looked back at Mike who was looking at the 2 kids run away. “Jim check this out” said Mike. Jim walked to the window and saw the APC’s. He had seen them on the net before and knew this was not good. “Hmm no markings and those are defiantly not our boys” said Jim while checking out the uniforms. Jim had heard earlier on the ham bands that some strange troops were roaming around and thought to himself that these could be these strange people with no markings on their uniforms.

Jim walked back down to the basement pulling Mike back.. “We will deal with this later. I need more info before we start shooting” Mike just nervously smiled and said ok.

Sitting here in this APC is uncomfortable to say the least , but then the military never took comfort into consideration ...oh well , soon more instructions will come down the line ...until then it is wait and observe ...evidently some people are in the neighborhood though not showing themselves, except for the two young guys who ran out of the middle house awhile ago like the devil was after them ..some smoke came from that chimmney so they must be fixing food , which reminds me , Barney better remember to bring something besides those darn rations with him ..after all the restaurants are being kept open for us ..a hot meal tastes good after this 'sit and wait ' detail....

Yet another night where I am awake at 3ish AM. Since 9/11, sleep does not come as easily as it used to. Tried to go back to sleep, but DH snoring and my bad leg would not allow that to be.As usual, TB helps make it through these early morning hours.
At the computer, as usual, reading Tb2000. Suddenly a banner across the top reading-"ALERT"
Oh, no another test of the alert system. So many of them recently.
This time, however, seems slightly different. The computer and the night lights are flickering. Sudden darkness. The computer is dead. All the secret tricks are not working and the screen remains dark. As I look outside with great caution, the sun is just rising over the horizion (or what I can see of the horizion). I cannot understand why the power is out. Fortunately, there is coffee left over and I place the cup in the microwave and press the start button. Nothing happens.
I quietly walk into the bedroom and wake DH. He pushed at me and tries to go back to sleep, but I am persistant. He awakens slowly. The urgency pushes me to get him going. The guns are locked and I do not remember the combonation. Something is wrong, but the animals are quiet.
As I walk back into the kitchen, there is a flash of light to the west. It is not a large one, but with the lights out, that much more noticeable. All the houses around me are still dark. A profound sense of forboding assails me. I walk into the bedroom to see where DH is again. ASLEEP, as usual.
As I look toward the east, the sun is rising (in all its glory) and the neighborhood begins to stir. Another day to reckon with.
My neighbor that works early, leaves his house. I am still walking around the house triying to deceide what to do. There is nothing, yet I feel something.
There is still no power, no phone and as I try to wash my hands- no running water. The panic begins to assail me.
DH arises, as does son. High school is early and it is time for him to get up. I make an executive decision-he is too ill to go to school. That strange feeling is still with me. I try to explain to DH, and his curt answer is-Y2K again?
When I point out that the power is out and there is no running water, reality hits that there is something wrong.
Looking at the neighbors houses-the doors open, and family start to peer out.
There is NO news.
DH and Jeff (next door neighbor) deceide to venture out to the "big world"
They return shortly with reports of nobody being out and about.
We all return to our homes to await news,

Kinda funny - my Massachusettes tax refund actually showed up today. We loaded up the trash and made an (armed) run to the dumpsters and then took the backroads to the bank out in the little farming village just up from the house. Heard some folks saying the interstate was blocked off and heavy trucks were running fast and furious both directions. We eased back home as quick as we could.

When the neighbor guys came home, they said the interstate had been blocked off by concrete barriers at the bottoms of all the ramps. Local cops were manning the barricades and had told our guys they didn't know what was going down, just that they were calling up every reserve officer in addition to the full-timers. The interstate was to be sealed off to private traffic and they were to use deadly force to keep it that way.

I showed them the printouts from TB2K and they agreed armed was the best bet. Since the morning, Chuck had gotten word out of foreign troops in Ohio and their marked-up maps. Florida was a mess - no one was sure if they'd been nuked or conventional-bombed, but whatever it was, it was definitely bad. Since most everyone else worked in town during the day, I was drafted as the neighborhood Defense Coordinator. Go figure...I'm the only one with any sort of combat-arms training among us. They'd been told to come in to work tomorrow if they could make it.

Town was a mess. Curtis told me it looked like they'd just forecast an ice-storm for tonight. WalMart and KMart supercenters were both filled to parking-lot capacity. The grocery stores were in similar shape. City cops were out en-masse and they'd seen the SWAT van sitting in front of city hall, with armor*ED* cops toting military guns. Well, ya gotta look good for the sheeple, I guess.

I dug out my crappy little Kodak digital camera and gave it to Curtis, telling him to take pics of anything military-looking when he went to work. It'd hold a couple dozen pictures and would at least give me a clue as to what was going on. I tried calling our local State Police Public Information Officer at home. Maybe he could tell me something - and since we went to church together, I was betting he'd tell me what he could.

I got lucky and caught him just as he was about to leave the house. Unfortunately, he couldn't tell me much more than the ConElRad broadcast - all the local police were on total call-out - which I'd already been told - and the National Guard (a combat engineer battalion here locally) was doing its best to reach all its members for local deployment - so if I knew anyone in the NG, tell him to check in with his unit. The local armored car (I've never seen it, but I think it's a Cadillac-Gage V-100) was on standby, in case it was needed. I guess they figured the shopping panic could get deadly. He did advise me to lock and load and stay home if at all possible. I assurred him we were planning just that, which left him relieved. After a quick prayer together, we hung up.

Oh Lord yall, this is just great........I know I'm breaking into the story line, but I just couldn't help myself!!.......please keep it coming,,,,,,,,all of you are so gifted at keeping this saga going..........My congratulations to all of you..........now, i'm ready for the next segment!!!

ps.......if i could write script like you people can, i would offer a segment myself!! but i know my areas of expertise, and this is not one of them!

Radiowaves

“CQ CQ CQ THIS IS W6OZN W6OZN calling any station QRZ” Crackles across the HF rig in the corner of Jim’s Basement. Jim flew across the room to turn in the station better. “W6OZN this is K6WWG Over” Shouts Jim into the mike. “K6WWG this is W6OZN , You got any idea what the HELL is going on, over?” Jim quickly keys the mike “Negative we are in the dark been holed up here for about half the day now no power or water, this is looking ugly old man Any ARES Nets active at this time I could check into?” “There is a SATURN Net over on 40 meters K6WWG but they are having trouble with jammers, by the way where are you?” Asked the other voice on the radio. “We are located in San Jose California, hey you think we should start up a net on this frequency, we might get someone who has more info to check in over” Said Jim. Mike and Debbie watched on as the kids gathered around the radio. “Afirm good idea, this is W6OZN Net control for the S.H.T.F. Net we are located in San Diego California this is a directed net please address all traffic to net control, to interrupt this net at any time for emergency or priority traffic say the word break and we will take traffic from your station” said the other ham and the S.H.T.F. Net was open for check ins!

Hours passed while the family and Jim talked to people from all over the US. The reports were amazing. Everything from nukes in L.A. to bio weapons in Texas. It was almost overwhelming. Jim was keeping a log of events and was helping with relay of traffic from distant stations when all of the sudden everything went silent. With in seconds it was apparent that someone was jamming the frequency. No voice just a beeping sound that was taking the whole band out. The voice came over the radio out of nowhere. It was a strange voice with a thick accent. Jim could not place it but it was not an American
"Eight One three six one eight ready ready six one six one six five one one five four three two one one ready ready" (Click to hear) blurted out in a female voice. She sounded very nervous or upset almost as if she was reading the numbers out with a gun pointed to her head.

“What the heck is that?” asked Mike. “Shhhhhhh” said Jim. He knew what this was, it was a “numbers” station. What he didn’t know is why the heck they broke into his QSO with W6OZN to blurt that out. He would have to figure that out. Just as well, everyone was hungry and it was almost time to take a trip outside to see what the heck was up.

The words kept spinning through her head as she hurriedly packed the little ranger.

" Damn, I hate being woken up to bad news" Lady whispered to herself. " How in the world am I supposed to fit all of this junk into that tiny truck?" she thought to herself. Anything to drown out the words, "Mom, this is John. Don't freak out or anything, but California has been nuked. There are foriegn troups in Florida, and more coming down through the great lakes area. We are under marshal law, and you can't use the interstate highways. " Nasty words to hear from a dead sound sleep. Shades of 911 waved over her like a tidal wave, the old grief trying to get a grip on her. Thank God there was enough to keep her busy working off the adreniline.

Lady went back into the house to try to figure out where to put the bird cages. She certainly couldn't set them free and can't leave them behind. Grabbing each bird she put all of them into the smaller cage. "That'll have to do, I can clip their wings later so they don't fly away. Thank God we still have phone and electric", she thought as she made more coffee to put in the thermoses , "but why isn't the local radio broadcasting? How's a person supposed to know what's going on anyway? I should have stored up more batteries, but damn..I didn't think it would really come to this!" Cursing and sweating she grabbed the heavy tent and took it outside to the truck.

Even though they had planned to bunk in durring an emergency, THIS was not the kind of emergency Lady and the Caveman planed on dealing with at home. There was no choice but to head for the country, and only 2 places could be considered. Each option was a difficult choice because one area provided a warmer climate while the other provided better escape and retreat should the need arise. Both areas were rich with water, shelter, game and fire wood. Each was as far from her as the other. She would choose the warmer climate for the time being. If she had to let the birds go, at least they had a better shot for survival in the warmer climate. Then, she could escape to the backup place a little lighter of load.

Tb2k alerts were the only communicatons available for news, but Lady wondered how long that would continue. Even posting troup movements for the benefit of the american public would at some point prove to be the bane of the enemy. They were already jamming Ham ops, how soon before the entire internet was down? Then, it would be every man for himself. Where were our guys??? What was our national defense doing? How did we get invaded with nobody knowing?
She could understand that the enemy brought their people over during peace time as "immigrants", that's how the people got here, but what about the military vehicles? How did they get here? How did they get them into Canada to get over the US borders with out anybody knowing??

Lady expected to see an invasion come up through South America, through Mexico, but not through the norther boarders, or from the beaches. She was accustomed to coastgard patrols along the becaches where she came from. They wouldn't even let AMERICANS hang around after 2 am, so how did this equipment get here if not by sea? Nobody was patrolling the St. Laurent either???? Figures. The gov allowed planes to stray from their flight paths for an hour or more without checking on what was amiss, why should she expect them to have learned anything from that????? People refuse to learn from history, especially politicians and leaders. The military's hands are tied to act independently because they take orders from politicians who insist on political correctness to save their elected asses.

Oh well, no matter. The packing must go on, and the bugging out must occur. As soon as the Caveman gets here with the air bubble filled and the extra gasoline, we should be about packed and ready to go she thought to herself with a sense of satisfaction at a job well done. That air bubble was potentially their most powerful weapon. And they only had one. A few cocktails would go well with it.

The sun rises over North Florida...

This has been the longest morning of my life.

Andy got over being pissed off at me for not believing him as we finished unloading their Jeep. I was glad to have the extra hands and they were glad to be out of the danger zone, well the immediate danger zone anyways.

There was no electrical power in the neighborhood and they hadn't seen any on the way out. The boom box in the living room was dead as a wedge even with batteries but I was expecting that. If we really did suffer some sort of electromagnetic pulse event then its power cord plugged into wall current would have been enough to collect a large enough charge to fry it. The phones were out so I broke out more radios and we began to sweep all the radio and TV frequencies we could access, which wasn't all that much considering what *should* have been there. What we did get would have driven a trained signals analyst half crazy so we were beside ourselves with fear and frustration.

Much of the time we could not tell who the broadcaster was that was speaking nor even where they were. It was still night over Florida and whatever it was that wiped out much of the broadcast communications thoroughly roiled the ionosphere so we were getting all kinds of crazy skip in the AM and some other bands. We never did hear WRUF again. We're not sure if it's because they didn't have the power to broadcast again or if it was taken out by the enemy. I suspect the latter explanation is the right one.

One AM station out of Chicago (I think) carried a short speech by the President declaring a State of Emergency and that the U.S. was under military attack with an immediate callup for all Reserve and National Guard personnel, temporary suspension of civil law and so on. Given the circumstances we gave that one a high credibility rating. We caught another 'cast claiming to be from USF campus on the other side of Tampa from McDill A.F.B. that stated there was a fire storm over Tampa but they were not reading high levels of radioactivity. That one set us a stumper because much of the available evidence suggested nuclear weapons but where was the radiation? High altitude airburst? Neutron bomb? A fuel-air detonation combined with a near space EMP burst? Another choppy broadcast we think coming from west of Tallahassee said there was a massive fire in the western panhandle which might be the Eglin A.F.B area. There's a lot of national forest there and it's been mighty dry this spring. No word on radiation levels there.

After a while we let the girls run the radio bands while Andy and I fired the gen-set and set to filling every available water container on the place and irrigating the garden, and every planting we could reach that produced something edible. Who knows when we were going to get any significant rain and I wasn't about to run the gen set frequently for irrigation - that would just have to wait until we had to fill the water barrels again. We also broke out all of the firearms, ammunition and other materials that might have some military value that we had and inspected and inventoried it all. A survivalist I might be but I am not equipped for putting an infantry platoon into the field!

Amongst the flotsam and jetsam of news the girls collected (unknown reliability) while they were cooking up the food in the refrigerator and refrigerator freezer were:

The enemy are definitely NOT U.S. troops. Who exactly they are has still not been determined. One report, out of Georgia we think, claims the enemy troops were wearing British camouflage while another from location unknown stated emphatically they were wearing Cuban. A skip out of South Florida somewhere claimed Chinese and another from another unknown location said Russian. Whoever they are they're doing a wonderful job of creating confusion!

After we ran new antenna wire up the mast we were able to pick up the two meter relay from atop Beatty tower on U.F. campus. A fellow hidden in a tree top watching it said that a running firefight had broken out on Archer road in Gainesville when the armored vehicle there had shot up a pickup truck loaded with highschool boys trying to run its blockade. Local residents opened fire on it with rifles, which naturally did little against its armored hide, until someone rammed it with a garbage truck. Enemy APC's showed up and a pitched battle ensued for a while until the resistance forces had to retire for lack of weaponry capable of dealing with armor. Sounds romantic to say "resistance forces" but I probably know some of the dead, wounded, missing, or captured. We lost contact with the relay not long after and I suspect the enemy took it out as well. A CB report stated the 27th Mechanized Infantry Division at Ft. Stewart near to Hinesville in Georgia was mobilizing and moving south to meet the invaders but we don't know how much credibility to give the data seeing as how short range CB broadcasts are even with a good antenna and a base station. No word on where local Reserve and Guard forces and volunteers are forming up but with the enemy monitoring radio communications that's to be expected I suppose. Kind of leaves us in a quandary of where to go though. Haring off and attacking the enemy directly on our own does not seem the prudent course but how do we find whatever organized resistance is forming? We could call on the radio but who would answer? And it would give away *our* position. Crap, I hate this.

Still no sign of the enemy here, but we're in a fairly rural area with a low population density and lower military value. It amazes me that whoever they are they have the strength of numbers to even occupy a place like Gainesville. This implies they are occupying other cities of similar size, at least those on the Interstates and nearly all cities in Florida of a hundred thousand or more are. I think Andy was wrong about them coming from Tampa, if it really is burning. The port facilities are just across the bay from the airbase and they're either wrecked or on fire. How they could have landed so MUCH armor and troops in such a short period of time is beyond me. Unless they were already here before the attack began but how could they have been concealed?

Well, the sun's been up for an hour but we're not seeing much more clearly than before. Frankly, as far as I'm concerned, the Fog of War sucks.

10pm. It's dark. I mean, we still have power, unlike a lot of the country, it seems, but out here away from town and with so much going on - it seems darker than usual.

DW and I are sitting out on the steps, using the citronella oil tiki torches instead of our AA-battery-run mosquito repellers. We need to run into town tomorrow, since we have a little money for stuff. First thing we gotta do is pay up on the storage unit so they'll take their lock off the door. Then we clean it *out* and bring it all home. I'll borrow one of the trailers from up at Curtis's house and we can load the truck and the trailer. Might take the van, too. That 10x10 unit is just about crammed full.

Well, ok. We'll go pay the unit rent after we hit WalMart, assuming they are open and functional. Rebecca wants to get a load of canning jars and lids, some more sugar ... more NiMH batteries, too. One good thing - I got ahold of the guy who handles golf-cart maintenance for the local country club. He's going to let me have several batteries just for hauling them off. Didn't hurt any that he's a former Marine - lucky for us. If things are clam enough, DW mentioned going and getting another bucket of wheat, too. I'm kinda leery on that score - that's a good ways across town - across the river actually, and I'm not wanting to be trapped out away from home.

I've been wondering about the utility outages. I wonder if some of them could have been caused by hostile code written into place during the panic of the y2k conversions. I remember an article on TB2K about how a lot of companies had "foreigners" working for them that weren't screened by the DOD or somesuch. Could they have been agents? Could something have been done to shut down utilities on command? I'm worried about my power - I'll have to ask about it on the board when we go inside.

Another thing we need to deal with is a well. Curtis thinks we may have a spring or something close to the surface on the back side of the property. It'll be kinda far to haul water, but it sure beats not having any water at all. Wonder if water-witching runs in the family? I need to find a wire coat-hanger or two and start practicing. We've got post-hole diggers and a shovel or three, so I guess we can dig as deep as we need to. Hafta look up well-diggin in Carla Emory's book.

Lots to do - hope we have time to do it all.

Finally, the mosquitoes run us inside - they must be wearing gas masks to ignore the citronella. I fire up the puter to check the latest and see if anyone is in chat.

Unbelievable! The chatroom is hopping - guess it keeps everyone feeling kinda sane...lot of regulars missing tonight, tho...

Sudenly Laura was awakened by a series of loud kabooms. It was way too loud to be tank fire from Ft. Knox and she knew it didn't sound good. Johnny was exhausted from long hours trying to get his business off the ground she decided to let him sleep. Tyler(10) and Macy (6) were awakened by the same sounds and were coming down the stairs,"Mom what's that" "I don't know kids lets turn on the scanners and see if we can here anything."

"Crap!" said Laura, "go wake up Jonathan(12) and start loading up the Cherokee, I'll get Daddy"

"Johnny, Johnny, wake up! Now! All the bridges across the Ohio River at Louisville except the RR bridge have been blown up. It's time to go"

"What?" a groggy Johnny questioned? "All the bridges across the Ohio have been blown and there have been similar explosions reported from Paducah on up"

"Tell Tyler and Macy to load up the Jeep and get Jonathan to load up the Chickens." "I already did, You get the horse trailer hooked up to your truck and load the painted mare her colt and the two quater horses up. Pack as many tools in the back as you can. We'll leave the two older mares and try to come back and get them later."

Johnny deferred to her wisdom and leadership along with her good looks this made her quite a desireable package and he was proud how she took charge. It was also her idea to forward deploy as much as they had at their bugout cabin in the Green River knobs of central Kentucky. He had just gone along with it because it was great hunting ground.

Johnny grabbed the bag of coins his pistols and made several trips back and forth loading knives, bows, all their hunting gear. He got the horse trailer hooked up, its a fifth wheel type and has some storage. Jonathan came up with the chickens crated up and was apologizeing about the three which ran in the woods. "it's ok, I'm just glad you got the ones you did" Johnny was glad to have a pre-man with such a good head on his shoulders to help.

Laura was in the kitchen loading all the medical supplies. Nikoli 's warning of "don't wait" had prompted her to reorder a series of antibiotics from the vet supply and they had arriver earlier that day. The Lord was with them.

All loaded up less than an hour. "Great Job Kids!!!"

They could here footsteps from next door approaching. It was Mr Ackerman the retired millionaire from next door.

"What in the hell is going on over here?"

"Nothing Bud" I said, "we just heard about the bridges being blown up and decided it was a good time to head to our cabin"

"you're the craziest person I ever met!" he said, "You did the same thing on 9/11 and now your doing it all over again. Have you ever thoguht of what your doing to these kids?"

"yes sir, that's all I think about is these kids. Why don't you and Mrs.Ackerman load up and come with us?"

"Why would I want to leave the modern day comforts of my beautiful home to head to your cabin in the middle of nowhere to live like a hillbilly? OUR GOVERNMENT will take care of this just like they did 9/11 and you'll be back here in a couple of days with egg on your face eating crow!"

"well I hope your right, load up kids, were heading out"

"God be with you, Mr. Ackerman"

Laura had perviosly decided a backroads route to take and they had practiced this route several times before.

Quietly they moved through the night.

They were coming up on Greensburg Kentucky and had to cross the Green rive there, then it was about 15 miles to their place. They drove up on a road block. The local militia had been triggered into action and had the town blocked off. Johnny had been invited to join this group several times before through hunting buddies but had decided not to be part of a group and become a target for the FBI/ATF. He had been a paramedic at one time and had trained a couple of times with these very guys, they knew him and let them through. They made there way through town and it was only about 30 minutes later they were "home."

It felt good.

out of character comments

Heya folks - some *really* good stuff being written here! I think so far everyone, except maybe Alan, has "finished off" Monday, May 6th. We probably oughtta start labelling our days as for what happens when, to make coordinating with everyone's posts easier.

So far, it looks like Monday has been a day of recon - find out what's going on in your area and the national rumors on the board here.

Don't be discouraged from posting! If you don't want to "reveal your plans," use your neighbors! Heck, this is a great time to "try out" some preps you're *thinking* about making...

Re: out of character comments

theoutlands said:

Heya folks - some *really* good stuff being written here! I think so far everyone, except maybe Alan, has "finished off" Monday, May 6th. We probably oughtta start labelling our days as for what happens when, to make coordinating with everyone's posts easier.

So far, it looks like Monday has been a day of recon - find out what's going on in your area and the national rumors on the board here.

Don't be discouraged from posting! If you don't want to "reveal your plans," use your neighbors! Heck, this is a great time to "try out" some preps you're *thinking* about making...

Click to expand...

Alan's late to the dance in this story and is just setting his stage. I'll be through Monday and into Tuesday with the next installment.

Sooner or later we've got to come to concensus about *where* these invasion troops are coming from and how they got all this armor here. I'm thinking of pulling out a science fiction rabbit out of my hat...

........Alan.

Tuesday morning, May 7th

Quick check on the boards before heading for town. Where did all the enemy armor come from? That's the big running question so far. I post my thoughts - remember those Chinese container ships? Almost any piece of equipment, including some not too terribly old main battle tanks, will fit into those shipping containers. We do it...did it...something. Our navy maintains (maintained?) container-ships full of stuff, sitting around the world - Military Pre-Positioned Packaging or something. All the military had to do was load troops onto planes and fly them in to unload the ships. Easy enough to do here, if you know what ports have weak customs inspections. I'm willing to bet they slipped *their* troops in posing as tourists - hey, the bad guys can read Dick Marcincko, too.

Boston is in flames. Seems someone decided one of those LPG supertankers that unloads at the Distrigas facility is a lot cheaper to use than a nuclear bomb. The fires are uncontrolled and the whole city is liable to be in flames soon, according to reports we are getting by ham-radio. I guess they must have diverted the tanker, then. They unload in Everett, on the other side of the harbor (more or less) from Boston proper.

We're heading for town - WalMart is open and not too crazy this morning and I have deep-cycle batteries waiting for me to pick them up. We'll take both vehicles and the trailer and all the rope I can find in the house. The rifles will be difficult to manage inside the vehicles - not to mention obvious - so we'll take the two pistols instead.

I try calling the Civil Defense offices again - no luck, still busy. I send him a quick email asking for whatever info he has that he can pass along.

Today is gonna be a loooooong day.....