Fleataxi
Deceased
Author's Note: This is a work of FICTION. It is loosely based on the Book of Revelation. This is NOT theology. Any deviation from the Book of Revelation is artistic license. Please do not debate pre/post Tribulation viewpoints in your comments.
Dateline 0800 February 1, 2005 Washington DC The Situation Room
“Mr. President, The Asteroid is over 20 kilometers in diameter, and we have to take precautions!”
President Kerry leaned over to talk to his Chief of Staff, then turned to his Science Advisor.
“Mr. Adamson, what is your best guess of the probability of this asteroid striking earth?’
He pressed a button, and the presentation graphics were rolling an animation. It showed a near-miss of around 50,000 miles, then a hit probability factor of less than 1%.
President Kerry blew up at his Science Advisor “You got me down here for an emergency meeting when I have a financial crisis to manage for a 1 in 1,000 chance of this asteroid striking the earth – this meeting is adjourned. Jim, I need you to recommend me a new Science Advisor, Mr. Adamson, You’re Fired!”
You could have heard a pin drop in the room. Mike Adamson was the best Astrophysicist in the country, with a Magna *** Laude PhD in Astrophysics from MIT. His personal estimates put the risk factor around 10-20 %, but the ever-cautious service drones at NASA had deliberately under-estimated the probability of a collision, since the last time they had predicated a collision and it missed, a whole department of engineers and scientists were fired by President Clinton. He packed his bags, and walked out of the room, thinking about where the safest parts of the country were. On his way out he made some phone calls and cashed in all his stocks and savings, and moved his family to the Southern United States, to a small town he grew up in West Virginia.
Meanwhile, in that same small town, Daniel Cox was busy in his Machine shop milling another cylinder head for a customer. Most of his jobs were run-of the mill repairs, but they paid the bills. He was also a Certified Welder, and more than once, he was called to work on a Civil project that needed his skills. He always charged fairly, and did his very best. His loves, besides God and His family, was his Country, or what it used to be, and his guns. He had purchased plans over 20 years ago to make several suppressed weapons, and only made enough for his family. His house and shop were literally dug into a mountainside. Between his shop, house, and storage, he had almost 100,000 square feet of space under the mountain.
He had acquired and installed over the years a very complete off- grid electrical system using wind, water, and solar power. His house backed up to a year-round creek that flowed fast enough that with the proper penstock and water turbines, produced 5KW every hour 7/24. He bought good used deep cycle batteries every chance he had, and currently had enough of a battery bank to run a week without any outside power. He didn’t use all the batteries at once, and carefully maintained and rotated his batteries, replacing the oldest batteries whenever he got a deal on new batteries. He had bought thousands of old golf cart batteries from the surrounding country clubs over the years. The batteries were perfectly good, it was just that the Country club manager had more dollars than sense, and replaced them every 5 years whether they needed it or not. As a result, Daniel got good used batteries with another 5 years of life left in them for pennies on the dollar. He bought Solar Panels from the State of West Virginia whenever they sold them as Surplus. Often the damage was cosmetic, and with a little TLC, he restored them to working condition. He had another 5KW of Solar panels out in front of his house on fixed racks, and several rebuilt wind turbines that someone had thought were dead, when all they needed was a good rebuild, and some cheap parts replaced. Between the 3, he had 15KW of power available most of the time, and kept his battery banks fully charged. He made his own hot water, and used a wood stove for cooking and what little heat he needed. He was surrounded by 20 acres of prime West Virginia land with a good creek for water, and enough game to last years. He had at least a year’s worth of stored food, and 2 years of stored supplies. His house was paid in full, and he paid his property taxes a year in advance every January 1st.
Every Sunday, his family went to the local church, then did what little shopping they needed on the way home. Daniel had stressed to his wife and children that they couldn’t breathe a word of their preparations to anyone. He told Mary, his wife that if the ATF knew of his weapons, he would probably die in prison if he made it that far. If anyone outside the family knew about his preparations, when things got bad they could all wind up dead or in prison. They had two strikes against them: They were Fundamentalist Born Again Christians, and they were gun owners. When the time came, the nation would turn against them, and they would stand alone. Daniel was sure that what his church called The Great Tribulation, to separate it from the current Tribulations that the church was facing, was right around the corner. With Kerry as the new President, he knew that his pastor might be right!
On this Sunday, on his way out of church, they decided to go shopping. As they pulled into the driveway of the local store, Daniel thought he recognized a familiar face from his past.
“Mike is that you?’
Mike Adamson, the Ex- Science Advisor to President Kerry turned around “Daniel, it is you – how are you doing?’
Daniel and Mike got caught up on things, and Daniel invited Mike and Sally up to their house for dinner. Mike gladly accepted.
Later that evening after dinner, Mike and Daniel sat down in Daniel’s “Office” to catch up on old times. When Mike got around to telling Daniel that he was the Ex-Science Advisor to President Kerry, and why, Daniel’s hair stood up on the back of his neck. As Mike was telling him about the meteor and what it could do, Daniel flashed back to Revelation 8:8-11. Mike saw the look on Daniel’s face, and asked him what was wrong. Daniel asked Mike if he was a Christian. Mike said “I used to go to Church as a kid, but haven’t been to church lately.”
Daniel grabbed his New King James Bible and opened to Revelation, then turned to Chapter 8, and started reading at verse 8.
8. Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood.
9. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
10 Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.
11 The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.
12 Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.
13 And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, "Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!"
Mike’s chin hit his chest and his eyes got huge. He thought about what he knew, and how it correlated with Revelation. Suddenly he realized that he needed to make sure he was right with God.
Mike leveled with Daniel, telling him everything about the incoming meteor. Mike told him that where they were, and the type of building they were in was the most survivable location they could be in next to Cheyenne Mountain. Since he wasn’t the President of the United States, this would have to do. Daniel thought quickly, and asked Mike where they were staying. Mike told him they were staying at a motel, since they were unable to buy a property in West Virginia with less than 30 days escrow. Daniel knew he had a spare bedroom, and offered it to his high-school best friend. Mike asked Daniel point blank what he had in the way of preparations. Daniel decided to trust him, and told him everything.
“Daniel, right now I’ve got over a million dollars in cash in the bank, and I think we should use it to increase our long-term survival chances here. If you’re right, this might be the 2nd Act of the Great Tribulation. I don’t remember reading about an earthquake, but it might not have made the papers. We should order at least a year or two worth of food, and see if we can get a well dug on short notice, since you can’t rely on the creek if everything outside freezes if my Global Winter scenario becomes reality. You could have 30 feet of snow outside for the first winter here.”
They talked on through the night, and Daniel made a list of everything he mentioned and thought they might need. Finally, Mike mentioned weapons. Daniel showed him his weapons cache, and Mike said that wouldn’t be enough to stop a determined attack. They would need some Semiauto weapons in .308 caliber or better. Daniel grinned, then said, “since money is no object, why not build a Semi-auto BMG .50 rifle. I’ve got the plans for one in my safe. Just never thought I’d need it!”
Mike looked stunned for a moment, then realized that any ATF or other Jack Booted Thugs crashed their house, they’d need all the firepower they would have. “Daniel, do you have any semiauto designs in .308 caliber as well?”
“Yeah, I’ve got a design just like the BMG 50 in .308 – why?”
“If you could build one for Sally and I, we could help defend the place.”
“Ok, Mike – seems like tomorrow we’re going shopping. How much cash can you get out of the bank at once?”
“If I want to avoid government notice, I need to limit my daily transactions to 9,000 dollars per day.”
“Ok, 9,000 dollars will buy a lot of ammo. If you want to go to the bank tomorrow, we can go shopping in Wheeling.”
“Dan, why Wheeling?”
“First, I’m not really known there, like if I had been making large purchases here, someone I know might find out, and wonder why I was purchasing ammo when I don’t own any guns, at least none on the books. Do you have a local checking account?”
“Funny you should ask, I never closed my old bank account when we moved to DC, hoping I’d come back some day, just not as soon as I did.”
“Great, so you have local checks, so the guys in Wheeling won’t question you when we buy a bunch of food there. Also, we need to get on the internet, and buy some long-term storage food from Nitro-pak. If we order enough, they can ship it by common carrier, and we can have them expedite shipping for an additional charge.”
The next day, Mike and Dan hit the bank on the way to Wheeling. They took both vehicles, since they wanted to buy as much stuff as possible. First they cleaned out Wal-mart for supplies, then they visited the local Kroger and bought case-lots of all kinds of canned foods, and huge quantities of staples. Large purchases weren’t unusual around there, since a lot of people lived way out in the sticks, and bought over a month’s worth of canned goods and staples at once. Finally, their last stop was a mom and pop gun store that gave Dan great pricing on ammo before, and asked no questions. He ordered several cases of .308 and all the 50BMG they had in stock, and several scopes, including a Leupold Mark III for the BMG, and a couple of Simmons 3x12x50 AO scopes for the .308 rifles. Mike paid cash for the transaction, so they didn’t need to show ID. By the time they made it home, both trucks were down on their overload springs. After they unloaded, Dan fired up his computer, and soon they were on the Nitro-pak website. Dan made several suggestions, and Mike ordered wisely, just ordering long-term foods. They ordered a truckload of food, and Mike almost maxed out his Visa card. They paid extra for expedited shipping so the food would arrive within a week. Next Mike used what little he had left on his Visa to order a case of heirloom vegetable seeds from Seed Savers. That last purchase maxed his credit card out, and Dan offered the use of his credit card which had over 10,000 dollars available if they needed anything else. They both drove diesel vehicles, and Mike asked him how they could store several thousand gallons of diesel.
“Well if money were no object, I could bury a tank in the front yard, and use an electric pump to pump it out – why?”
“Dan, think for a minute. If TSHTF, where are we going to get any fuel?”
“OK, Mike, I know a local distributor who can install a 10K tank if you want that much, and fill it, but he’ll probably want cash or a cashier’s check for that kind of money.”
“How much are we talking about?”
“He owes me some favors, so I can probably get him to install and fill it for $50-100 thousand.”
“How about if we only bought 5,000 gallons?”
“That would only drop the price to around 50 thousand, the main costs are digging and burying the tank, there’s a huge labor cost involved!”
“OK, I still have most of my million dollars in the bank – why not!”
Dan made the call, and he said he would be by tomorrow to start digging the hole for the tank. Since Dan was out in the sticks, there wasn’t any permits needed besides the state ones, and Jim would take care of those.
Mike noticed Dan’s Radio Shack, and asked him if he still had his Ham license.
“Still got my general, it’s good for 5 more years.”
“Dan, you had better take the radio towers and all your wind turbines down a couple of days before the meteor is supposed to hit, the shock wave might destroy any tall items, and there might be some EMP associated with the meteor’s passage through the atmosphere. Dang, that reminds me – do you have good sturdy garage for both vehicles?”
“Dude, you must not have been paying attention. The garage is next to the house, and buried way into the mountain. The only thing that sticks out is the huge metal door. I’ve got a 4x4 ATV with a huge snow blower attachment to plow my driveway inside, just in case.”
“Better make sure you stock up on gasoline and Stabil or Pri.”
“What’s Pri?”
“It’s a stabilizer they make one for Diesel and one for Gasoline. That reminds me, we need to buy enough Pri-D to stabilize the diesel. How deep underground are they going?”
“I told them I wanted it 6 feet below the frost line just to be safe – I know how diesel can gel up when it gets cold!”
By now Mike and Sally had moved into their new room, and were settling in for a long stay. The next day, Dan took a 50-gallon drum to the gas station to fill up with gasoline. Mike paid cash for the gas, then they went to the auto parts store and bought enough Pri stabilizer to make sure it was good for a while. Jim showed up, and Dan showed him where he wanted the tank. Jim assured him none of the State paperwork would show the true location of the tank. He had done this for several other people he knew, since they thought that if the Feds knew they had stockpiled that much diesel, they must be a dangerous nut that needed to be on a list.
Mike decided they needed to make another run to Wheeling. He wanted some more ammo, and more food since Dan had the space to store it. While they were in town, Dan stopped at his favorite metal shop, and bought a huge amount of metal, just in case. Since he was always ordering weird metals from them, they never questioned his orders for Ordinance grade steel billets and bars. He ordered some Titanium and other metals just to throw them off the track, besides they could use some big knives for Mike and Sally. They came back with a truck full of staples and canned goods, plus Dan’s truck full of metal and ammo he bought from a different store for cash.
The very next day, President Kerry finally got around to banning all weapons and ammo sales. He hadn’t made it far enough yet to start confiscating, but he wanted the flow stopped. Dan was thanking God that night that they had had all the ammo they would need for almost 10 years after what they bought the other day.
Dan almost smacked his forehead and found Mike to ask him if the had any heavy winter coats and boots. When he said that they didn’t, Dan highly suggested they make a run into town tomorrow to check out the stores and buy some. He suggested the wives go to a Fabric store and stock up on fabrics and stuff to make clothes just in case.
The next day, both families went to town, and bought several sets of winter clothes. Mary and Sally bought several complete bolts of denim, canvas duck and a bolt of a cammo pattern the deer hunters around there wore, as well as a bunch of thread and notions. When they got home, they noticed their storage was getting full. That afternoon, the well driller showed up, and Dan showed him where he wanted the well drilled. 2 days later, they had a 1,000 foot well down into a deep aquifer sandwiched between two layers of granite. He installed the well pump and the 1,000 gallon tank inside a steel building that Dan had buried inside the mountain, but never used, and connected the pump to the fuse panel. Dan hoped that when everyone was finished, no one would know they were there unless they got right up to the house. Dan spent the next week hardening the access points with some scrap plate steel and his welder. Then he painted them to match the original doors, except now they would stop a 30 caliber round, at least for a while.
The next day, the truck arrived from Nitro-Pak, and they took the rest of the morning unloading and storing 2 years worth of additional food. When they finished, Mike remembered something Dan had said about hydro-electric power, and walked out to the creek. He looked and looked, and couldn’t see any evidence of any hydro power installation. All there was on the Creek was a huge rock that seemed to turn the creek into an underground creek. Confused, he asked Dan where the hydro installation was.
“It’s under the rock Mike!”
Mike was still confused, so Dan explained “That’s a fake rock I built to cover all the signs of my hydro installation. It’s like all the fake rocks in Disneyland, they’re mostly made of fiberglass and gunite, and I made a steel framework to hold it all in place. The only hint that it’s not a real rock is a small access panel that allows me to remove the rock to get at my hydro system for repairs and stuff. This one only weighs a couple of hundred pounds, but it’s heavy enough to make someone think it’s the real thing.
Jim showed up that morning with a loader/backhoe setup and the 10,000 gallon diesel tank on a flatbed. By that afternoon, the hole was dug, and the tank was in the hole. It would take him another day to finish making the connections and fill the tank. As Jim promised, the top of the tank was 8 feet below grade, plenty deep enough to avoid freezing or gelling problems. Instead of a hugely expensive turbine pump, Jim suggested a low pressure high volume fuel pump, which could fill a 100 gallon tank in 10 minutes. Dan thought that would be perfect and Jim told him he would see him tomorrow to finish the job.
Dan and Mike retired to Dan’s shop, and he started work on the .308 rifles. He asked Mike how long of a barrel he wanted, and Mike said that a 24 inch full profile barrel should be plenty. Dan chucked a 30-inch piece of ordinance stock in the lathe, and soon had a perfect 30-inch barrel turned. Now for the hard part, he needed to bore a perfectly concentric hole down the barrel and rifle it. Good thing he had a 36 inch line borer. Since it was semi-automatic, he could set it up and walk away. The next day, the barrel had a perfect .30 caliber hole running right through the middle. Next he set up the rifling machine with the depth and twist specs from the plans and rifled the whole barrel blank. All he had left to do is cut the blank, de-stress it, and bore the chamber and thread the receiver attachment. The receiver would be made out of a single piece of bar stock and machined to shape. Since the lathe was available, he programmed the cuts and parameters into the machine, made sure the piece of stock was setup right, closed the cover, and started the machine. Making the bolt would be a walk in the park compared to making the barrel. His parts bin included a bunch of complete sets of trigger groups from Brownell’s, so he could install any trigger he wanted into the receiver. Dan was tempted at one time to become a gunsmith and custom gun manufacturer, but figured that the ATF would be all over him if TSHTF, so he bought all the equipment, but never applied for the manufacturer’s license. Besides at the small quantities he purchased, a Manufacturer’s license would only save him 10%. It wasn’t worth the hassle. When the receiver was done, he programmed the lathe to make a bolt with locking lugs. He was going to build the rifle on an H&K action with the rotating lugs, to give a more positive lockup for accuracy and safety. When he was done with the barrel, Mike was amazed when he started making extra cuts on it, threading the outside of the barrel, and trial fitting a huge aluminum tube over it. Finally Mike couldn’t stand the suspense any more and asked him what the heck he was doing.
“I’m fitting the rifle for a suppressor. Even if the bullet is still supersonic, the suppressor will change the noise profile, eliminate muzzle blast, and reduce recoil, Hopefully whomever hears you shooting at them will think your are 90 degrees off where you really are.”
“Dan, you are really devious! Who would have thought of suppressing a supersonic battle rifle?”
“Mike, the US Military wants to go to suppressed rifles for just those reasons. Besides, it makes the rifle quieter and reduces firing signature since there is no muzzle blast to disturb dirt and vegetation. I’ve got a totally wiperless design that will take a .45 acp carbine, and reduce the noise signature down to a pellet gun.”
When he was finished with everything else, Dan machined a pair of huge scope rings that would fit exactly into cuts in the receiver designed to hold them, so he could remove and replace the scope without loosing zero. Since this gun had no other sights, this feature was not needed, but the rings would hold up to the recoil of a BMG 50 rifle. They were so wide they barely fit inside the short sections of 1” tube of the scope, and when he cut the rings, and drilled and tapped the screws to connect them, Mike marveled at his craftsmanship. A week later, Dan had the rifle assembled, and was ready to test it. They drove out to an abandoned mine, set up a rifle target at 100 yards, and Dan set the rifle up on sand bags so he could adjust the scope that he had mounted and boresighted with a laser boresighter. Dan’s first round went right through the x-ring. “Don’t change a thing” Dan proclaimed “Its dead bang on at 100 yards, all you need to do is adjust the setting for range now.”
Mike endured Dan’s verbose instructions to shoot the rifle – he already knew how to shoot, he’d been hunting deer in these woods as long as Dan. When he finally shut up, Mark picked up the rifle and the box of 168gr Match ammo, and laid down on a tarp in a Military prone position. After fiddling with the scope, but not touching the elevation and windage adjustments, Mike finally settled down to shoot the rifle, after sticking earplugs in his ears – he hated loud noises! When the sight centered on the x-ring, he squeezed the trigger. His round was high and left in the 9- ring, not a very good shot. His next two shots got closer to the x-ring, but were still high and left in the 10-ring. When he finished shooting, he decided to listen to Dan this time when he suggested a slight fix on his hold. The next group of three was in the x-ring. Mike was amazed at how quiet the rifle was, even with supersonic ammo. He could almost shoot without plugs, and in an emergency, he would. Dan paced off 300 yards and set up another target. When he came back, Mike was impressed; the rifle was totally cool to the touch. Mike lay down with the rifle again, and sighted in the 300 yard target. This one would be tougher, so he concentrated, slowed his breathing and pulse, and when the sights crossed the center of the x-ring, fired a shot. It was 9-ring low, and Dan suggested clicking in 3 clicks of elevation change to compensate. Mike adjusted the scope, fired another round, and it was just to the left of the x-ring and on the same level. Mike was trying to decide if he needed to make a scope adjustment when Dan walked up and suggested a physical change he had noticed. As soon as Mike made the correction, the scope locked on the x-ring and stayed there. He shot a 3- shot x-ring group and was happy. He didn’t give a RA how big his groups were, since he had just shot an x-ring group at 300 yards – he had never done that before!
When they got home, something was troubling Mike, so Dan asked him what he was thinking.
“Dan, you remember in Revelation where they talked about a third of the sky being dark, what if that’s a Global winter caused by debris in the sky from the meteor impact – your solar system wouldn’t work if there was no sun!”
“Yikes, I hadn’t thought of that! What are we going to do?”
Well, we have 10,000 gallons of diesel, why not get a DC diesel generator to replace your panels, say a 10KW unit?”
“Might be a tough call, my battery bank is set up for 48vdc, and most of the standard units are 12vdc!”
“Let’s call around, maybe you’ll get lucky!”
They started dialing, none of the local hardware stores from Clarksburg to Wheeling had anything in 48vdc. Finally Mark got on the phone with an old geezer that suggested they check the local military surplus, since some of their equipment was 48vdc. Mark thanked him and called the local surplus store.
“Abe’s Surplus, this is Abe speaking.”
“Abe, Mark Adamson, by any chance would you have a 48vdc diesel generator there?”
“Yep, I got Ol Bessie out back, she’s my yard queen. She’s Korean War vintage, runs on Diesel, and produces 10KW. Couldn’t ever sell her since she puts out 48vdc, and everyone wants either 115-120VAC or 12vdc. I even have the manuals and a complete parts and repair kit for her. She’s yours if you want her!”
“How much do you want?”
“Since you’ve been so nice young feller, I’ll sell it to you for a grand.”
“OK, Abe, we’ll be down in half an hour – is Bessie on a trailer or skid mounted?”
“She’s on a military trailer with a 50-gallon tank that’s still in good shape.”
“Thanks Abe, we’ll be right over!”
“Dan, let’s go – Abe’s Surplus has exactly what we want!”
When they got there, Ol Bessie was in pretty sad shape, but she did run, and he did have complete manuals for it and a complete parts kit. He even threw in an old Ring and Pintle hitch adapter so Dan’s truck could tow her home, and a tank full of diesel. Mark wrote the check, and they decided to look at the rest of his store. Dan was like a kid in a candy store – Old Abe had tons of stuff he could use, and kept piling it on the counter. When he was finished, he asked Abe how much for the lot of them. Abe was cranking away at his ancient adding machine, then when he had a total, gave them a 30% discount since they were buying so much stuff. “That’s $500 even for the lot!” Mike wrote the check, and Dan called Jim on the cell phone with an unusual request – he needed to modify their setup to feed Ol Bessie from the underground tank. Jim had a perfect idea, and stopped by the next morning. He checked Ol Bessie’s tank out, and told Dan the good news, she would work perfectly for what he wanted to do. He was going to install low-pressure/high volume demand-style diesel fuel pump underground next to the tank, and run a 1 inch rigid fuel line to his garage. He’d install a manifold, and 2 flex hoses. 1 would be hard connected to Ol Bessie’s tank and the other would terminate in a nozzle to fill the trucks. All they’d have to do was run DC power out to the tank in a piece of buried conduit. They might even be able to use the same trench for both. Dan thought that would be an excellent idea, since the garage was vented, and that would eliminate anything above ground outside to make them harder to spot. Mark said he could rig a remote on/off switch for the generator so they wouldn’t have to go outside to start or stop her. Since she was water-cooled, when she ran, she’d help keep the garage warm in the winter.
Mike had one last question for Dan – what about food production if there’s no sunlight – they only had enough food for 2 years without hunting or growing food. Dan explained that they had grow lights for an indoor greenhouse. They walked over to it, and Dan showed Mike his set-up. Mike asked if he had tried Hydroponics, and asked him how warm this room got with all the florescent fixtures running.
“Oh, I guess around 80 degrees.”
“Dan, have you ever heard of aquaculture?”
“Mike what are you talking about?”
“NASA developed a closed circuit system for food and oxygen production. You raise fish like tilapia, and use their byproducts in a hydroponic system to grow food. You feed the green vegetable matter back to the fish to supplement their feed, and you have a renewable system. You have more than enough electricity and water, and the environment is more than warm enough. If we can keep the water between 75 and 80 degrees, the fish will thrive, and produce nutrients to feed the plants. I can get you an article off the internet that explains the entire process.”
They walked back into Dan’s office, and when Mark showed him the article, he realized he had ¾ of what he needed. He made a list of the rest, and started ordering like crazy on the internet. Over the next week, they would have enough fish and tanks to have a self-sustaining system. They weren’t worried about the oxygen production, but figured it wouldn’t hurt. They drove into town the next day to buy all the stuff they could get locally to save shipping costs. They bought almost the entire stock of warm and cool 48 inch florescent tubes and several extra fixtures and spare ballasts, then they bought 5 gallons of liquid fish emulsion to supplement the output of the fish to jumpstart the system. The fish, fish food, tanks, and regulators would arrive later that week. Mike thought they were cutting it close, since the Meteor would arrive 3 days later. Dan asked Mike “What if the Meteor Misses?”
That brought Mike to a full stop. “I guess if I’m wrong, we’ll be living with you guys until I can earn enough money to get back on my feet – I’ve still got half a million in the bank just in case I’m wrong, but I don’t see any thing else we can buy to improve our situation.”
“Mike, this is just me, but you might consider changing as much of that cash into gold and silver as you can in the next couple of days. If the stuff hits the fan, FRN’s might be worthless, but people will barter for gold and silver, at least for a while.”
“You’re right, and if I’m wrong, and it misses, I can always sell them off later.”
Dan gave Mike the phone numbers of some reliable gold and silver traders in town. Mike said he’d call them the next day.
The next morning, Mike drove into town to see Sam, the President of the bank, and a good friend of theirs from high school. When they got inside his office, Mike asked him the best way to convert half a million dollars into gold and silver, and he needed the metal, not just a certificate. When Sam asked why, Mike told him. Sam realized who Mike was, and felt a cold chill run down his spine. He said he could authorize a one-time wire transfer to the dealer, and wouldn’t file the federal paperwork.
When Mike asked him why, Sam said “Your honesty might have just saved my family’s life, now I have a little over a week to plan and prepare.”
Mike made Sam promise to keep it under his hat, since news like this could start a general panic, and more people would die in the panic than would be saved by knowing. They were hundreds of miles from the coast in a wooded area with plenty of local resources, so they would probably be able to ride it out OK. Sam promised complete secrecy. Mike called a dealer using Sam’s phone, and arranged the purchase of half-a million in Gold and Silver coins and bars of various denominations, but all North American Currency with no Krugerrands. Since it was such a large amount, it would be 80% gold, and 20 percent Silver. Sam got on the line and authorized a wire transfer, and the Dealer said he would deliver the metal to the bank at 0800 the next morning via armored car. Sam and Mike agreed to this, and the deal was done. Tomorrow at 8:00 am, he’d own half a million dollars worth of gold and silver.
Fleataxi
TEOTWAWKI II
The Great Tribulation
The Great Tribulation
CHAPTER 1
Dateline 0800 February 1, 2005 Washington DC The Situation Room
“Mr. President, The Asteroid is over 20 kilometers in diameter, and we have to take precautions!”
President Kerry leaned over to talk to his Chief of Staff, then turned to his Science Advisor.
“Mr. Adamson, what is your best guess of the probability of this asteroid striking earth?’
He pressed a button, and the presentation graphics were rolling an animation. It showed a near-miss of around 50,000 miles, then a hit probability factor of less than 1%.
President Kerry blew up at his Science Advisor “You got me down here for an emergency meeting when I have a financial crisis to manage for a 1 in 1,000 chance of this asteroid striking the earth – this meeting is adjourned. Jim, I need you to recommend me a new Science Advisor, Mr. Adamson, You’re Fired!”
You could have heard a pin drop in the room. Mike Adamson was the best Astrophysicist in the country, with a Magna *** Laude PhD in Astrophysics from MIT. His personal estimates put the risk factor around 10-20 %, but the ever-cautious service drones at NASA had deliberately under-estimated the probability of a collision, since the last time they had predicated a collision and it missed, a whole department of engineers and scientists were fired by President Clinton. He packed his bags, and walked out of the room, thinking about where the safest parts of the country were. On his way out he made some phone calls and cashed in all his stocks and savings, and moved his family to the Southern United States, to a small town he grew up in West Virginia.
Meanwhile, in that same small town, Daniel Cox was busy in his Machine shop milling another cylinder head for a customer. Most of his jobs were run-of the mill repairs, but they paid the bills. He was also a Certified Welder, and more than once, he was called to work on a Civil project that needed his skills. He always charged fairly, and did his very best. His loves, besides God and His family, was his Country, or what it used to be, and his guns. He had purchased plans over 20 years ago to make several suppressed weapons, and only made enough for his family. His house and shop were literally dug into a mountainside. Between his shop, house, and storage, he had almost 100,000 square feet of space under the mountain.
He had acquired and installed over the years a very complete off- grid electrical system using wind, water, and solar power. His house backed up to a year-round creek that flowed fast enough that with the proper penstock and water turbines, produced 5KW every hour 7/24. He bought good used deep cycle batteries every chance he had, and currently had enough of a battery bank to run a week without any outside power. He didn’t use all the batteries at once, and carefully maintained and rotated his batteries, replacing the oldest batteries whenever he got a deal on new batteries. He had bought thousands of old golf cart batteries from the surrounding country clubs over the years. The batteries were perfectly good, it was just that the Country club manager had more dollars than sense, and replaced them every 5 years whether they needed it or not. As a result, Daniel got good used batteries with another 5 years of life left in them for pennies on the dollar. He bought Solar Panels from the State of West Virginia whenever they sold them as Surplus. Often the damage was cosmetic, and with a little TLC, he restored them to working condition. He had another 5KW of Solar panels out in front of his house on fixed racks, and several rebuilt wind turbines that someone had thought were dead, when all they needed was a good rebuild, and some cheap parts replaced. Between the 3, he had 15KW of power available most of the time, and kept his battery banks fully charged. He made his own hot water, and used a wood stove for cooking and what little heat he needed. He was surrounded by 20 acres of prime West Virginia land with a good creek for water, and enough game to last years. He had at least a year’s worth of stored food, and 2 years of stored supplies. His house was paid in full, and he paid his property taxes a year in advance every January 1st.
Every Sunday, his family went to the local church, then did what little shopping they needed on the way home. Daniel had stressed to his wife and children that they couldn’t breathe a word of their preparations to anyone. He told Mary, his wife that if the ATF knew of his weapons, he would probably die in prison if he made it that far. If anyone outside the family knew about his preparations, when things got bad they could all wind up dead or in prison. They had two strikes against them: They were Fundamentalist Born Again Christians, and they were gun owners. When the time came, the nation would turn against them, and they would stand alone. Daniel was sure that what his church called The Great Tribulation, to separate it from the current Tribulations that the church was facing, was right around the corner. With Kerry as the new President, he knew that his pastor might be right!
On this Sunday, on his way out of church, they decided to go shopping. As they pulled into the driveway of the local store, Daniel thought he recognized a familiar face from his past.
“Mike is that you?’
Mike Adamson, the Ex- Science Advisor to President Kerry turned around “Daniel, it is you – how are you doing?’
Daniel and Mike got caught up on things, and Daniel invited Mike and Sally up to their house for dinner. Mike gladly accepted.
Later that evening after dinner, Mike and Daniel sat down in Daniel’s “Office” to catch up on old times. When Mike got around to telling Daniel that he was the Ex-Science Advisor to President Kerry, and why, Daniel’s hair stood up on the back of his neck. As Mike was telling him about the meteor and what it could do, Daniel flashed back to Revelation 8:8-11. Mike saw the look on Daniel’s face, and asked him what was wrong. Daniel asked Mike if he was a Christian. Mike said “I used to go to Church as a kid, but haven’t been to church lately.”
Daniel grabbed his New King James Bible and opened to Revelation, then turned to Chapter 8, and started reading at verse 8.
8. Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood.
9. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
10 Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.
11 The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.
12 Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.
13 And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, "Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!"
Mike’s chin hit his chest and his eyes got huge. He thought about what he knew, and how it correlated with Revelation. Suddenly he realized that he needed to make sure he was right with God.
Mike leveled with Daniel, telling him everything about the incoming meteor. Mike told him that where they were, and the type of building they were in was the most survivable location they could be in next to Cheyenne Mountain. Since he wasn’t the President of the United States, this would have to do. Daniel thought quickly, and asked Mike where they were staying. Mike told him they were staying at a motel, since they were unable to buy a property in West Virginia with less than 30 days escrow. Daniel knew he had a spare bedroom, and offered it to his high-school best friend. Mike asked Daniel point blank what he had in the way of preparations. Daniel decided to trust him, and told him everything.
“Daniel, right now I’ve got over a million dollars in cash in the bank, and I think we should use it to increase our long-term survival chances here. If you’re right, this might be the 2nd Act of the Great Tribulation. I don’t remember reading about an earthquake, but it might not have made the papers. We should order at least a year or two worth of food, and see if we can get a well dug on short notice, since you can’t rely on the creek if everything outside freezes if my Global Winter scenario becomes reality. You could have 30 feet of snow outside for the first winter here.”
They talked on through the night, and Daniel made a list of everything he mentioned and thought they might need. Finally, Mike mentioned weapons. Daniel showed him his weapons cache, and Mike said that wouldn’t be enough to stop a determined attack. They would need some Semiauto weapons in .308 caliber or better. Daniel grinned, then said, “since money is no object, why not build a Semi-auto BMG .50 rifle. I’ve got the plans for one in my safe. Just never thought I’d need it!”
Mike looked stunned for a moment, then realized that any ATF or other Jack Booted Thugs crashed their house, they’d need all the firepower they would have. “Daniel, do you have any semiauto designs in .308 caliber as well?”
“Yeah, I’ve got a design just like the BMG 50 in .308 – why?”
“If you could build one for Sally and I, we could help defend the place.”
“Ok, Mike – seems like tomorrow we’re going shopping. How much cash can you get out of the bank at once?”
“If I want to avoid government notice, I need to limit my daily transactions to 9,000 dollars per day.”
“Ok, 9,000 dollars will buy a lot of ammo. If you want to go to the bank tomorrow, we can go shopping in Wheeling.”
“Dan, why Wheeling?”
“First, I’m not really known there, like if I had been making large purchases here, someone I know might find out, and wonder why I was purchasing ammo when I don’t own any guns, at least none on the books. Do you have a local checking account?”
“Funny you should ask, I never closed my old bank account when we moved to DC, hoping I’d come back some day, just not as soon as I did.”
“Great, so you have local checks, so the guys in Wheeling won’t question you when we buy a bunch of food there. Also, we need to get on the internet, and buy some long-term storage food from Nitro-pak. If we order enough, they can ship it by common carrier, and we can have them expedite shipping for an additional charge.”
The next day, Mike and Dan hit the bank on the way to Wheeling. They took both vehicles, since they wanted to buy as much stuff as possible. First they cleaned out Wal-mart for supplies, then they visited the local Kroger and bought case-lots of all kinds of canned foods, and huge quantities of staples. Large purchases weren’t unusual around there, since a lot of people lived way out in the sticks, and bought over a month’s worth of canned goods and staples at once. Finally, their last stop was a mom and pop gun store that gave Dan great pricing on ammo before, and asked no questions. He ordered several cases of .308 and all the 50BMG they had in stock, and several scopes, including a Leupold Mark III for the BMG, and a couple of Simmons 3x12x50 AO scopes for the .308 rifles. Mike paid cash for the transaction, so they didn’t need to show ID. By the time they made it home, both trucks were down on their overload springs. After they unloaded, Dan fired up his computer, and soon they were on the Nitro-pak website. Dan made several suggestions, and Mike ordered wisely, just ordering long-term foods. They ordered a truckload of food, and Mike almost maxed out his Visa card. They paid extra for expedited shipping so the food would arrive within a week. Next Mike used what little he had left on his Visa to order a case of heirloom vegetable seeds from Seed Savers. That last purchase maxed his credit card out, and Dan offered the use of his credit card which had over 10,000 dollars available if they needed anything else. They both drove diesel vehicles, and Mike asked him how they could store several thousand gallons of diesel.
“Well if money were no object, I could bury a tank in the front yard, and use an electric pump to pump it out – why?”
“Dan, think for a minute. If TSHTF, where are we going to get any fuel?”
“OK, Mike, I know a local distributor who can install a 10K tank if you want that much, and fill it, but he’ll probably want cash or a cashier’s check for that kind of money.”
“How much are we talking about?”
“He owes me some favors, so I can probably get him to install and fill it for $50-100 thousand.”
“How about if we only bought 5,000 gallons?”
“That would only drop the price to around 50 thousand, the main costs are digging and burying the tank, there’s a huge labor cost involved!”
“OK, I still have most of my million dollars in the bank – why not!”
Dan made the call, and he said he would be by tomorrow to start digging the hole for the tank. Since Dan was out in the sticks, there wasn’t any permits needed besides the state ones, and Jim would take care of those.
Mike noticed Dan’s Radio Shack, and asked him if he still had his Ham license.
“Still got my general, it’s good for 5 more years.”
“Dan, you had better take the radio towers and all your wind turbines down a couple of days before the meteor is supposed to hit, the shock wave might destroy any tall items, and there might be some EMP associated with the meteor’s passage through the atmosphere. Dang, that reminds me – do you have good sturdy garage for both vehicles?”
“Dude, you must not have been paying attention. The garage is next to the house, and buried way into the mountain. The only thing that sticks out is the huge metal door. I’ve got a 4x4 ATV with a huge snow blower attachment to plow my driveway inside, just in case.”
“Better make sure you stock up on gasoline and Stabil or Pri.”
“What’s Pri?”
“It’s a stabilizer they make one for Diesel and one for Gasoline. That reminds me, we need to buy enough Pri-D to stabilize the diesel. How deep underground are they going?”
“I told them I wanted it 6 feet below the frost line just to be safe – I know how diesel can gel up when it gets cold!”
By now Mike and Sally had moved into their new room, and were settling in for a long stay. The next day, Dan took a 50-gallon drum to the gas station to fill up with gasoline. Mike paid cash for the gas, then they went to the auto parts store and bought enough Pri stabilizer to make sure it was good for a while. Jim showed up, and Dan showed him where he wanted the tank. Jim assured him none of the State paperwork would show the true location of the tank. He had done this for several other people he knew, since they thought that if the Feds knew they had stockpiled that much diesel, they must be a dangerous nut that needed to be on a list.
Mike decided they needed to make another run to Wheeling. He wanted some more ammo, and more food since Dan had the space to store it. While they were in town, Dan stopped at his favorite metal shop, and bought a huge amount of metal, just in case. Since he was always ordering weird metals from them, they never questioned his orders for Ordinance grade steel billets and bars. He ordered some Titanium and other metals just to throw them off the track, besides they could use some big knives for Mike and Sally. They came back with a truck full of staples and canned goods, plus Dan’s truck full of metal and ammo he bought from a different store for cash.
The very next day, President Kerry finally got around to banning all weapons and ammo sales. He hadn’t made it far enough yet to start confiscating, but he wanted the flow stopped. Dan was thanking God that night that they had had all the ammo they would need for almost 10 years after what they bought the other day.
Dan almost smacked his forehead and found Mike to ask him if the had any heavy winter coats and boots. When he said that they didn’t, Dan highly suggested they make a run into town tomorrow to check out the stores and buy some. He suggested the wives go to a Fabric store and stock up on fabrics and stuff to make clothes just in case.
The next day, both families went to town, and bought several sets of winter clothes. Mary and Sally bought several complete bolts of denim, canvas duck and a bolt of a cammo pattern the deer hunters around there wore, as well as a bunch of thread and notions. When they got home, they noticed their storage was getting full. That afternoon, the well driller showed up, and Dan showed him where he wanted the well drilled. 2 days later, they had a 1,000 foot well down into a deep aquifer sandwiched between two layers of granite. He installed the well pump and the 1,000 gallon tank inside a steel building that Dan had buried inside the mountain, but never used, and connected the pump to the fuse panel. Dan hoped that when everyone was finished, no one would know they were there unless they got right up to the house. Dan spent the next week hardening the access points with some scrap plate steel and his welder. Then he painted them to match the original doors, except now they would stop a 30 caliber round, at least for a while.
The next day, the truck arrived from Nitro-Pak, and they took the rest of the morning unloading and storing 2 years worth of additional food. When they finished, Mike remembered something Dan had said about hydro-electric power, and walked out to the creek. He looked and looked, and couldn’t see any evidence of any hydro power installation. All there was on the Creek was a huge rock that seemed to turn the creek into an underground creek. Confused, he asked Dan where the hydro installation was.
“It’s under the rock Mike!”
Mike was still confused, so Dan explained “That’s a fake rock I built to cover all the signs of my hydro installation. It’s like all the fake rocks in Disneyland, they’re mostly made of fiberglass and gunite, and I made a steel framework to hold it all in place. The only hint that it’s not a real rock is a small access panel that allows me to remove the rock to get at my hydro system for repairs and stuff. This one only weighs a couple of hundred pounds, but it’s heavy enough to make someone think it’s the real thing.
Jim showed up that morning with a loader/backhoe setup and the 10,000 gallon diesel tank on a flatbed. By that afternoon, the hole was dug, and the tank was in the hole. It would take him another day to finish making the connections and fill the tank. As Jim promised, the top of the tank was 8 feet below grade, plenty deep enough to avoid freezing or gelling problems. Instead of a hugely expensive turbine pump, Jim suggested a low pressure high volume fuel pump, which could fill a 100 gallon tank in 10 minutes. Dan thought that would be perfect and Jim told him he would see him tomorrow to finish the job.
Dan and Mike retired to Dan’s shop, and he started work on the .308 rifles. He asked Mike how long of a barrel he wanted, and Mike said that a 24 inch full profile barrel should be plenty. Dan chucked a 30-inch piece of ordinance stock in the lathe, and soon had a perfect 30-inch barrel turned. Now for the hard part, he needed to bore a perfectly concentric hole down the barrel and rifle it. Good thing he had a 36 inch line borer. Since it was semi-automatic, he could set it up and walk away. The next day, the barrel had a perfect .30 caliber hole running right through the middle. Next he set up the rifling machine with the depth and twist specs from the plans and rifled the whole barrel blank. All he had left to do is cut the blank, de-stress it, and bore the chamber and thread the receiver attachment. The receiver would be made out of a single piece of bar stock and machined to shape. Since the lathe was available, he programmed the cuts and parameters into the machine, made sure the piece of stock was setup right, closed the cover, and started the machine. Making the bolt would be a walk in the park compared to making the barrel. His parts bin included a bunch of complete sets of trigger groups from Brownell’s, so he could install any trigger he wanted into the receiver. Dan was tempted at one time to become a gunsmith and custom gun manufacturer, but figured that the ATF would be all over him if TSHTF, so he bought all the equipment, but never applied for the manufacturer’s license. Besides at the small quantities he purchased, a Manufacturer’s license would only save him 10%. It wasn’t worth the hassle. When the receiver was done, he programmed the lathe to make a bolt with locking lugs. He was going to build the rifle on an H&K action with the rotating lugs, to give a more positive lockup for accuracy and safety. When he was done with the barrel, Mike was amazed when he started making extra cuts on it, threading the outside of the barrel, and trial fitting a huge aluminum tube over it. Finally Mike couldn’t stand the suspense any more and asked him what the heck he was doing.
“I’m fitting the rifle for a suppressor. Even if the bullet is still supersonic, the suppressor will change the noise profile, eliminate muzzle blast, and reduce recoil, Hopefully whomever hears you shooting at them will think your are 90 degrees off where you really are.”
“Dan, you are really devious! Who would have thought of suppressing a supersonic battle rifle?”
“Mike, the US Military wants to go to suppressed rifles for just those reasons. Besides, it makes the rifle quieter and reduces firing signature since there is no muzzle blast to disturb dirt and vegetation. I’ve got a totally wiperless design that will take a .45 acp carbine, and reduce the noise signature down to a pellet gun.”
When he was finished with everything else, Dan machined a pair of huge scope rings that would fit exactly into cuts in the receiver designed to hold them, so he could remove and replace the scope without loosing zero. Since this gun had no other sights, this feature was not needed, but the rings would hold up to the recoil of a BMG 50 rifle. They were so wide they barely fit inside the short sections of 1” tube of the scope, and when he cut the rings, and drilled and tapped the screws to connect them, Mike marveled at his craftsmanship. A week later, Dan had the rifle assembled, and was ready to test it. They drove out to an abandoned mine, set up a rifle target at 100 yards, and Dan set the rifle up on sand bags so he could adjust the scope that he had mounted and boresighted with a laser boresighter. Dan’s first round went right through the x-ring. “Don’t change a thing” Dan proclaimed “Its dead bang on at 100 yards, all you need to do is adjust the setting for range now.”
Mike endured Dan’s verbose instructions to shoot the rifle – he already knew how to shoot, he’d been hunting deer in these woods as long as Dan. When he finally shut up, Mark picked up the rifle and the box of 168gr Match ammo, and laid down on a tarp in a Military prone position. After fiddling with the scope, but not touching the elevation and windage adjustments, Mike finally settled down to shoot the rifle, after sticking earplugs in his ears – he hated loud noises! When the sight centered on the x-ring, he squeezed the trigger. His round was high and left in the 9- ring, not a very good shot. His next two shots got closer to the x-ring, but were still high and left in the 10-ring. When he finished shooting, he decided to listen to Dan this time when he suggested a slight fix on his hold. The next group of three was in the x-ring. Mike was amazed at how quiet the rifle was, even with supersonic ammo. He could almost shoot without plugs, and in an emergency, he would. Dan paced off 300 yards and set up another target. When he came back, Mike was impressed; the rifle was totally cool to the touch. Mike lay down with the rifle again, and sighted in the 300 yard target. This one would be tougher, so he concentrated, slowed his breathing and pulse, and when the sights crossed the center of the x-ring, fired a shot. It was 9-ring low, and Dan suggested clicking in 3 clicks of elevation change to compensate. Mike adjusted the scope, fired another round, and it was just to the left of the x-ring and on the same level. Mike was trying to decide if he needed to make a scope adjustment when Dan walked up and suggested a physical change he had noticed. As soon as Mike made the correction, the scope locked on the x-ring and stayed there. He shot a 3- shot x-ring group and was happy. He didn’t give a RA how big his groups were, since he had just shot an x-ring group at 300 yards – he had never done that before!
When they got home, something was troubling Mike, so Dan asked him what he was thinking.
“Dan, you remember in Revelation where they talked about a third of the sky being dark, what if that’s a Global winter caused by debris in the sky from the meteor impact – your solar system wouldn’t work if there was no sun!”
“Yikes, I hadn’t thought of that! What are we going to do?”
Well, we have 10,000 gallons of diesel, why not get a DC diesel generator to replace your panels, say a 10KW unit?”
“Might be a tough call, my battery bank is set up for 48vdc, and most of the standard units are 12vdc!”
“Let’s call around, maybe you’ll get lucky!”
They started dialing, none of the local hardware stores from Clarksburg to Wheeling had anything in 48vdc. Finally Mark got on the phone with an old geezer that suggested they check the local military surplus, since some of their equipment was 48vdc. Mark thanked him and called the local surplus store.
“Abe’s Surplus, this is Abe speaking.”
“Abe, Mark Adamson, by any chance would you have a 48vdc diesel generator there?”
“Yep, I got Ol Bessie out back, she’s my yard queen. She’s Korean War vintage, runs on Diesel, and produces 10KW. Couldn’t ever sell her since she puts out 48vdc, and everyone wants either 115-120VAC or 12vdc. I even have the manuals and a complete parts and repair kit for her. She’s yours if you want her!”
“How much do you want?”
“Since you’ve been so nice young feller, I’ll sell it to you for a grand.”
“OK, Abe, we’ll be down in half an hour – is Bessie on a trailer or skid mounted?”
“She’s on a military trailer with a 50-gallon tank that’s still in good shape.”
“Thanks Abe, we’ll be right over!”
“Dan, let’s go – Abe’s Surplus has exactly what we want!”
When they got there, Ol Bessie was in pretty sad shape, but she did run, and he did have complete manuals for it and a complete parts kit. He even threw in an old Ring and Pintle hitch adapter so Dan’s truck could tow her home, and a tank full of diesel. Mark wrote the check, and they decided to look at the rest of his store. Dan was like a kid in a candy store – Old Abe had tons of stuff he could use, and kept piling it on the counter. When he was finished, he asked Abe how much for the lot of them. Abe was cranking away at his ancient adding machine, then when he had a total, gave them a 30% discount since they were buying so much stuff. “That’s $500 even for the lot!” Mike wrote the check, and Dan called Jim on the cell phone with an unusual request – he needed to modify their setup to feed Ol Bessie from the underground tank. Jim had a perfect idea, and stopped by the next morning. He checked Ol Bessie’s tank out, and told Dan the good news, she would work perfectly for what he wanted to do. He was going to install low-pressure/high volume demand-style diesel fuel pump underground next to the tank, and run a 1 inch rigid fuel line to his garage. He’d install a manifold, and 2 flex hoses. 1 would be hard connected to Ol Bessie’s tank and the other would terminate in a nozzle to fill the trucks. All they’d have to do was run DC power out to the tank in a piece of buried conduit. They might even be able to use the same trench for both. Dan thought that would be an excellent idea, since the garage was vented, and that would eliminate anything above ground outside to make them harder to spot. Mark said he could rig a remote on/off switch for the generator so they wouldn’t have to go outside to start or stop her. Since she was water-cooled, when she ran, she’d help keep the garage warm in the winter.
Mike had one last question for Dan – what about food production if there’s no sunlight – they only had enough food for 2 years without hunting or growing food. Dan explained that they had grow lights for an indoor greenhouse. They walked over to it, and Dan showed Mike his set-up. Mike asked if he had tried Hydroponics, and asked him how warm this room got with all the florescent fixtures running.
“Oh, I guess around 80 degrees.”
“Dan, have you ever heard of aquaculture?”
“Mike what are you talking about?”
“NASA developed a closed circuit system for food and oxygen production. You raise fish like tilapia, and use their byproducts in a hydroponic system to grow food. You feed the green vegetable matter back to the fish to supplement their feed, and you have a renewable system. You have more than enough electricity and water, and the environment is more than warm enough. If we can keep the water between 75 and 80 degrees, the fish will thrive, and produce nutrients to feed the plants. I can get you an article off the internet that explains the entire process.”
They walked back into Dan’s office, and when Mark showed him the article, he realized he had ¾ of what he needed. He made a list of the rest, and started ordering like crazy on the internet. Over the next week, they would have enough fish and tanks to have a self-sustaining system. They weren’t worried about the oxygen production, but figured it wouldn’t hurt. They drove into town the next day to buy all the stuff they could get locally to save shipping costs. They bought almost the entire stock of warm and cool 48 inch florescent tubes and several extra fixtures and spare ballasts, then they bought 5 gallons of liquid fish emulsion to supplement the output of the fish to jumpstart the system. The fish, fish food, tanks, and regulators would arrive later that week. Mike thought they were cutting it close, since the Meteor would arrive 3 days later. Dan asked Mike “What if the Meteor Misses?”
That brought Mike to a full stop. “I guess if I’m wrong, we’ll be living with you guys until I can earn enough money to get back on my feet – I’ve still got half a million in the bank just in case I’m wrong, but I don’t see any thing else we can buy to improve our situation.”
“Mike, this is just me, but you might consider changing as much of that cash into gold and silver as you can in the next couple of days. If the stuff hits the fan, FRN’s might be worthless, but people will barter for gold and silver, at least for a while.”
“You’re right, and if I’m wrong, and it misses, I can always sell them off later.”
Dan gave Mike the phone numbers of some reliable gold and silver traders in town. Mike said he’d call them the next day.
The next morning, Mike drove into town to see Sam, the President of the bank, and a good friend of theirs from high school. When they got inside his office, Mike asked him the best way to convert half a million dollars into gold and silver, and he needed the metal, not just a certificate. When Sam asked why, Mike told him. Sam realized who Mike was, and felt a cold chill run down his spine. He said he could authorize a one-time wire transfer to the dealer, and wouldn’t file the federal paperwork.
When Mike asked him why, Sam said “Your honesty might have just saved my family’s life, now I have a little over a week to plan and prepare.”
Mike made Sam promise to keep it under his hat, since news like this could start a general panic, and more people would die in the panic than would be saved by knowing. They were hundreds of miles from the coast in a wooded area with plenty of local resources, so they would probably be able to ride it out OK. Sam promised complete secrecy. Mike called a dealer using Sam’s phone, and arranged the purchase of half-a million in Gold and Silver coins and bars of various denominations, but all North American Currency with no Krugerrands. Since it was such a large amount, it would be 80% gold, and 20 percent Silver. Sam got on the line and authorized a wire transfer, and the Dealer said he would deliver the metal to the bank at 0800 the next morning via armored car. Sam and Mike agreed to this, and the deal was done. Tomorrow at 8:00 am, he’d own half a million dollars worth of gold and silver.
Fleataxi
