Lone Star Odyssey- First Steps

by David Wilson

  I moved to the edge of the service road that led into the main compound of the waste treatment plant. Stopping just south of the main compound I paused and listened for any sign of activity. After a couple of minutes I moved into the main compound though the open gate. The compound appeared to be empty and reminded me of a movie set from Twilight Zone. I still was not used to the unnatural quiet or should I say the natural quiet our world had taken on. Moving slowly I moved to the corner of the main pump house building. Glancing around the corner I saw two large pools of a dark colored dried liquid. Moving closer my stomach tightened, blood. I debated on whether to call and let everyone know there had been trouble here but decided not to. Everyone was tried and there was no reason to get everyone upset about something that they could do nothing about. Due to the dryness of the blood, whatever had happened here had been several hours if not a day ago. Easing to the main door I tested the doorknob, finding that it turned easily in my hand. Pulling open the door just enough to let me in I moved to the left of the door with my M4 in the ready position. I stood and listened for a couple minutes but detected no movement of any kind. Inching along the wall and keeping my head on a swivel I moved to the first office. The smell hit me before my eyes adjusted to the dim late afternoon lit shining though the windows. I didn’t bother to count all the bodies but it appeared to 8 to 10 bodies, all were dressed in coveralls and all had been shot multiple times with a small caliber handgun or carbine.

  Seeing how the men had been lined up against the wall and made to kneel before they had been shot at close range indicated an execution. This was no random act. Stepping out of the office I move down the corridor to what appeared to be the control room for the water treatment plant. Entering the control room with my M4 in the ready position the first thing I saw was the complete destruction of the room. Every computer and workstation was destroyed, yet not just smashed. Whom ever had done this was not just out randomly destroying, there was a organized look to the destruction. Taking a closer look I saw that the hard drives had been removed from each of the workstations before each of the machines motherboard had been smashed. Even each of the monitors had been destroyed in the same way. This was a planned operation with an objective. Continuing to look around the office a saw a huge map of the District on the wall. It was really a monitor instead of a paper map. If the power had been on it would have been showing the flow rates and status of all the pumping station throughout the District of Columbia. Even without a PHD in hydrology I could tell that this was the main treatment plant to supply water to the District. Slightly horrified I realized the District was without potable water and there would be no water pressure for fighting any fires. This was worse than I thought it was going to be, someone had planned this. We had been lucky to get out when we did. I can only imagine how bad it was downtown D.C. If the fires were not already out of control they would be sometime in the next 24 hours, but the worst thing is, nobody is going to realize it before it is too late. Realizing I had be daydreaming, I turned and headed back to the main entrance of the building. Nothing I could do here and I just eased back out the way I came in careful not to step in any blood spots or the dried pools in front of the building.

  Moving back towards my group I stopped by the exit gate of the compound and stood and watched and listened again for any sounds. My thoughts turned to my family, as skilled as my wife is, the one issue I have always worried about was with the size of Houston came the same threat we were now facing with the possible Golden Horde I had told the group about. It didn’t matter how many bullets or guns you had, one or two people could not stop a crowd of hungry desperate people with nothing to lose that was moving though your neighborhood. Human locust that leave nothing of value and have very little to no regard for life or property. I keep telling myself that our house is far enough off any main roads that it is unlikely people fleeing downtown Houston would venture that far off the main highway. There are no stores or major built up areas that would attract the mob but it still worries me. People that have lost everything are capable of anything if they think you have something that can help them.

  So far I had traveled maybe 30 miles from where I started. That was about ten miles a day, which meant I might make it home in six or seven months. I will have to do a lot better than that and pick up the pace. Our food supplies at home were good for 90 to 120 days but water would become a problem after about 60 days. I had to pick up my pace. Once across the Appalachian Mountains I was hoping to be able to travel by river over to the Mississippi and down it to around Baton Rouge. That should cut a lot of the time off my trip as it would allow me to make 30-50 miles a day, especially once I make the Mississippi as the current really moves along. Not easy, but much better time than I could make on foot or bike. Of course that brings up the point about the bikes. While the bikes allow us to make much better time and to carry more weight. They are a security problem as they will be very noisy on the gravel towpath and they allow us to ride right into trouble before we even know there is any problem. I will have to discuss it with the group tonight.

  Still not hearing or seeing any sign of people I moved back to the Southwest and though the woods to the service road. Locating my bike I pushed it over to the maintenance shed to join the group. When I got within sight of the shed I radioed the group and let them know I was coming in. Pushing my bike into the shed I leaned it against the south wall with the rest of the bikes. Don and Beth already have on some water to heat. Mat had dug out everyone’s water bags and already had them hung from the wall filtering. I dug into my ruck and pull out my own Solo stove and headed over to a spot near them. Unslinging my M4 I sat and begun unpacking my stove and water pot. “So how is everyone holding up?” I ask. “Oh, pretty good I think,” Don said, “although I’m looking forward to getting some sleep tonight.” “Be sure and have someone help you change that bandage on your head before you go to sleep tonight. There is one thing we all need to talk about,” I said as Mat joined the three of us, “its about using the bikes. Once we are on the tow road beginning tomorrow we are going to have to be very careful. The tires on the gravel will be very loud and we could ride straight into a dangerous situation before we even realize there is a danger. I’m not saying we should ditch the bikes but with each day passing people are going to be getting more and more desperate, just saying at some point we might have to, hopefully we won’t start running into people on the tow path.” I stood and walked outside to grab a handful of twigs and small sticks for my stove. Returning back inside the shed I built a fire in my stove with another of the Vaseline soaked cotton balls. Sitting my water pot on the stove I continued, “Tomorrow will be day four of this and from this point on people will really be beginning to panic. There will still be a large percentage of people in denial; wishing and hoping the government will swoop in and save the day, putting everything back to normal. But there will also be those who will step up and seize power of everything that they can. Some will be good people with good intentions, others will be bad people with bad intentions,” I paused while checking my water, “even those with good intentions could cause us problems. Hell, anyone that has read “One Second After” or “Lucifer's Hammer” will have already shut down their town or communities and won’t allow outsiders in.” Seeing blank looks on everyone’s faces I explained, “Those are two books widely read within the prepper communities, one is about an EMP event and the other about a meteor striking earth. That is not to mention the crazies and hardcore gangs and criminals. We definitely want to avoid those if at all possible. There is nothing worse than someone that truly believes in a cause. Either will kill us in a heartbeat if they perceive us as a threat. And I will say it again, Beth, you need to dial down as much as you possible can with your looks.” With that statement, anger jumped into Beth’s eyes, I held up my hand palm down in a patting motion, “Hang on it's not a slight on womanhood, but you are not to go anywhere alone. Most of the ‘bad element’ would kill any of the guys and never think a
nything about it, you on the other hand, one look at you and well there are worse things than death. So during the day when we are traveling, please, no tight shirts and if you can hide as much of your hair under your stocking cap.” Beth was still visible angry and she started to say something several times but ended up just sitting and glaring at me. I could understand her being mad at the situation but hopefully she would think it though and not be mad at me. “Beth, if you draw attention to yourself than you are not only putting yourself in danger, but all of us also. As any of us would do whatever it takes to protect you, you have to realize that you are a beautiful young lady, and I agree it is not right that you should have to hide that fact, but if it keeps us out of one firefight or keeps one of us from having to shoot someone just once, than isn’t it worth it?” Beth held my graze for a few heartbeats, than her shoulders slumped and she nodded, “Your right, I don’t want any one of you guys to get hurt or have to shoot someone because of me. I will make sure and dial it back as much as possible. Although right now I would kill for a hot shower.” I smiled, “Well normally I would say go jump into the river and wash up but as we are at a major water treatment plant, a un-operational plant, I would not recommend the river right here. Tomorrow upriver we will stop early enough for all of us to take a dip in the river.”

  My water was boiling, so I ripped open my Mountain House bag of Chili Mac and dug around in it until I found the oxygen absorber packet, pulled it out and dumped the boiling water into the pouch. Sealing the bag I turned it over several times to make sure everything was mixed together and set it aside to rehydrate. I thought again of how lucky we had been so far, between being able to stock up before leaving to being able to find the mountain bikes and trailers. Not to mention that the Mountain House meals actually tasted pretty good. I let my mind relax and drift to wondering how my wife and kids were actually doing right now. By this time my wife would have gotten out the SHTF binder out of our gun safe. She always teased me about spending so much time on that “damn binder”. She refused to have anything to do with it, but I know her and she would have gone to the safe by now and gotten it out. Chapter one of the binder would give her an overview of the binder and by now she would know about the stored food packed in the storage closet under the stairs. The five gallon buckets and cases of number 10 cans had been hid behind some of our Christmas decorations. It had been fairly easy to do, as I had moved most of the decorations out to the garage when I put in the new shelving in the garages. As I had always dealt with the decorations (at least the pulling out and putting away), she was none the wiser. I left just enough of the bins of decorations in the closet to build a wall to hide the rest of the gear behind. As I have said before, my wife is one of the smartest people I know but we don’t always agree on the need or depth of prepping that is (or was) needed beyond 3-5 days of stuff. She had given me no end of grief when I ordered two bathroom tub reservoirs. She would have been mad as hell if she ever discovered the stored food, well until now. I doubt very much that she is mad at me about that right now. I had tested it on the kids and they all liked the Mountain House meals, well at least most of them. They really liked the Chili Mac, Lasagna, and Beef Stroganoff, and of course all of the breakfast meals. Oh, my wife might still be mad at me but she would get over it once she saw this wasn’t just another power outage. So the food and the ammo might have, would have really got her blood boiling, but again she would quickly realize the need for it. That’s not to mention the four short-barreled AR15s or SBR’s that I had built from parts and stored in the gun safe. The SBR LWRC 5.56 I had built for her to go along with her Sig M11 pistol. I might have forgotten to mention them to her also. She is short, about 5’3” and while she is in good shape and could handle a full size M4, most of her experience was with an SBR, so that’s what I put away for her. Both the SBR and the M11 were the weapons she was trained on and had deployed with on her three tours in Afghanistan.

  Giving myself a mental shake, I snapped out of my daydreaming and refilled my Solo pot with more water for a cup of coffee and some spare to clean up with. Before putting the pot back on the stove I checked the fire and added a few more pieces of wood to the stove to keep it going to heat the water. “What were you so deep in thought about,” ask Beth, “that was the first time I think I have really seen you smiling since we met?” I looked over and she met my eyes, “I was just thinking about my wife and kids,” I said. I could tell she would like to ask more questions, but she was a smart one and realized that I would have said more if I had wanted to share any more of my thoughts. After a few seconds she nodded and turned away and began a conversation with Mat. I walked over to the wall with all of the water bags and began pulling the now empty dirty water bags. Gathering all of the empty dirty water bags, I grabbed my M4 and headed down towards the river. Mat and Beth got up and took the bags from me and stated they would handle the water detail. I approved as both picked up their rifles as they headed down to the canal to fill the bags.

  Seeing that my water was getting hot again, I radioed Jeff and Ben to let them know Mat and Beth were going down to the water and to ask them what they wanted to eat. Both wanted beef stew so I walked over to the trailer with the open case of Mountain House and dug around until I found two beef stews. Adding hot water to both packages, I refilled by water pot, stood and grabbed my M4 and slung it at the low ready, picked up the two meals and headed out to find Jeff and Ben. Chatting with both of the guys to make sure they were ok to stand first watch I dropped off their food and headed back to the shed. Getting back to the shed I told Mat and Beth to get some sleep as they had the 2200 to 0200 shift. Neither looked too happy about it but they both nodded and got up to get their snivel gear. Don had already rolled out his sleeping bag on the floor in the corner and was softly snoring. I pulled my rucksack from my trailer and headed to the far back of the shed. Dropping my ruck in the corner I dug out my Warbonnet hammock. The metal building we were in had metal support beams about every eight feet, perfect for hanging my hammock. Taking all of 30 seconds I had my hammock set up, slide in my sleeping pad between the double layers and turned to pull out my sleeping bag as padding and my blow up pillow. Hey, I learned a long time ago not to practice being miserable. My first Warbonnet had been a single layer, and it was a great hammock for warm weather or for inside sleeping. But the only draw back to sleeping in a hammock or hanging as it is called by the hammock community, is that in cooler weather a hammock can get cold really quick. Warbonnets answer to this was to create a double layer hammock that you could slide a ground-sleeping pad between the layers. This keeps your body heat trapped and the double layer keeps the sleeping pad from sliding around. After getting my gear set the way I wanted it, I walked back over to my stove and added the remaining hot water to my coffee. Returning to my hammock I sat down in it and sighed. It felt so good just to sit and relax while I finished my coffee. Sitting my cup down, I pulled my boots off, got one more radio check with Jeff and Ben, curled up with my M4 and closed my eyes.

  Chapter Twelve

  I must have been more tried than I thought, it seemed that I had just closed my eyes to when Mat woke me by shaking my hammock support strap. “Its time for your watch,” Mat whispered, “I have on water if you want a hot cup of coffee.” Sitting up and swinging my legs out of my hammock I nodded and muttered thanks to Mat. I felt like shit, no other way to put it, I had not been on a bike in years and I could feel every muscle in my legs and my lower back and butt was screaming in protest. The early morning air had a slight chill to it and did nothing to improve my mood. Reaching down I grabbed my boots and shook them out. Old habits die-hard, it only takes once to finding an unwelcome visitor in one of your boots. After getting my boots on I rummaged though my ruck for my Ziploc baggie of coffee singles. Really wish they had had these when I was in the grunts, so much better than instant coffee and you could get two cups from each one when in a pinch. Finding the coffee I grabbed my cup and my canteen and headed over to the cooking area. Afte
r filling my cup, I refilled the pot and added a couple of small pieces of wood to the stove to keep the fire going. I then headed out of the shed to man my post. Don was already waiting outside and nodded to me as I walked up. Raising his own cup of coffee he blew on the hot coffee raising a small cloud of steam. “Winter is coming,” he said. I nodded in agreement, “Hopefully we can make it to your place in another 3 or 4 days,” I said, “I really need to get though West Virginia before the real winter arrives.” Don gave me a long look and ask, “So you have decided to try the river to get south?” “I think so, it will be faster and I think safer in the long run, especially traveling alone. Also I will be able to travel longer each day if I stick to the water,” I replied. I could tell Don had something on his mind, he had been unusually quiet all evening. “Go ahead and say whatever you're thinking Don,” I said. He jumped a little at my tone, and then stood looking at the ground like a little boy caught doing something wrong before speaking. “I was just thinking it might be best if you waited until spring to try and cross over the mountains. I could really use the help with these kids though the winter and if you are caught in an early winter storm in those mountains, no amount of skill or knowledge is going to help.” He would not look me in the eyes when he finished his statement. “Don, you know I would stick around and help if I could, but I have my family I have to get back too. My family needs me there now, not in the spring. I have to get over to the Ohio before the first snow hits. You will be fine, these guys are all smart and in good shape. As long as they don’t do something stupid you all will be fine.” “I’m just worried,” Don said, “I’m a city boy with a few hunting skills, sure some of them have grown up hunting and fishing but when there is 3 feet of snow on the ground that isn’t going to do us much good,” he mused. “We can discuss it again once we get to the cabin and I will help you lay out a plan for the coming winter. We should be able to scavenge a little between here and the cabin, plus you said you have a good amount of supplies laid in already,” I answered, “lets get out to our posts and like I said we can do some planning once we get to the cabin. I promise I won’t leave until we have a good plan in place for you guys. Ok?” Don nodded and smiled before turning and headed out to replace Beth on guard. I finished my coffee and sat my cup by the stove and headed out to relieve Mat.