by Ron Foster
A Savage Awakening
A Savage Awakening
Midpoint
The Savage Awakening
Ron Foster
USA
© 2012 by Ron Foster
All rights reserved.
ISBN-13: 978-1481906838
ISBN-10: 1481906836
Printed in the United States of America.
Acknowledgements
Scott Hunt
Practical Preppers Crank-A-Watt
The book begins with Chapter 5 because its part of a series
A Day of Realization
It was day seven of the great societal unraveling when Dennis woke up this morning. He lay in his bed but for a moment contemplating staying there a bit longer.
“No there was too much to do today. What time was it anyway? The sun was up but either its overcast or it’s early in the day to be getting up. Ah, 5 am., oh lord” Dennis groaned to himself as he looked for a shirt to wear today. He wasn’t much of a morning person but he always got up and got moving when he was required too.
He stood bleary eyed in front of a cabinet he used for his closet and began looking for a shirt to wear today. Ordinarily he would have just grabbed one of what he called his “Florida shirts” which were a casual button up type of dress shirt that featured some kind of nautical theme like saltwater fish prints or palm trees.
Today was different though in many ways and he opted to start wearing a different style of everyday wear. The world was a different place now, it wasn’t just that the climate was getting cooler that made him ponder wearing some different clothes; it was time for him to adopt a new fashion.
The fashion of the apocalypse he said to himself with a slight grin. Well he certainly had the clothes for it. He probably had every kind of military surplus camouflage shirt there was, as well a couple civilian camo pattern ones. He also had a pretty good selection of what he called his city neutral clothes which were dark shades and earth tones like coyote brown. He had a faded olive drab vest which had a hidden pocket to conceal his full size 9mm as well as a bunch of pockets for survival gear and extra mags that didn’t really stand out any more than a fishing vest would in the country, but he wasn’t going there yet.
He chose instead to wear a long sleeve blue-green shirt from some foreign military and put on a belly band holster underneath it to hold his 17 shot 9mm Astra; he picked his small 9mm keltec 6 shot up off the night stand and put it in the front pocket of his blue jeans. A quick check in the mirror to see if either of the pistols was “printing” too much and he went to check on his mom.
She was already up and had the coffee on by using a Coleman propane stove he had shown her how to use last night.
“Good! Looks like she had gotten over her fears of that stove.” He thought as he greeted her and said good morning.
“Morning Dennis, did I wake you?” She asked.
“No, I was getting up already. Thanks for making the coffee. See that thing isn’t as bad you thought. ” Dennis said going to pour him a cup.
“It really isn’t hard to use at all but I have never been around one before.” His mom said settling in a chair at the dining room table.
“Good coffee. Did you sleep ok?” Dennis said sitting down across from her.
“Not really, I got to get used to that bed. That mattress is so soft! I can’t believe that’s the same mattress and springs you inherited from your grandmother and never replaced them.” She said fussily.
“Time and money mom, when I had the money I didn’t have the time and vice versa. Besides I like the feel of that bed, it’s still pretty comfortable to me.” Dennis said reminding her he had given up his own bed to her and now he was forced to sleep on a daybed in the second bedroom which was about the size of a big walk in closet.
“I might try that daybed of yours later and give you back your room.” His mom began before Dennis interrupted.
“You can try it, but I sort of like our arrangement of rooms so don’t say you like it if you don’t.” Dennis said thinking that for security purposes he liked being that close to the back and front doors and unless you knew the lay of the house, it was hard to pinpoint that bedroom from the outside.
“Wouldn’t that room be warmer in winter being closer to the wood stove?” She asked.
“You would think so, but it’s not, that utility room it connects too doesn’t have much insulation and it leaks cold into the house. That’s the reason I put that thermoelectric Eco fan on top of the stove pointing at it at night otherwise it doesn’t get that warm.” Dennis concluded.
“Well, we will sort out sleeping arrangements later. What projects are you going to be working on today?” His mom asked and then looked out the front window surveying the scenery.
“Good question. I think that I am going to try to burn off the raised beds in the garden today if they are dried out enough, if not, then I am going to till up a couple beds and put in some buckwheat and chick pea. That crop can be used as green manure and tilled in or we might be eating it if need be. I need to try to build me some cold frames out of those old trailer windows I got so we can grow something this season. Sometime today also I need to get up with Charles and Monica and sort out what we are doing. Now Mom, you got to look at Charlie and Monica as new members of our tribe now because that is exactly what they are. We are going to have to put away some prior notions of ‘just because I bought all these food preps” that we won’t be sharing somewhat equally with them because that is the only way it will work out for all of us.” Dennis explained as a lead in to what he wanted to bring up next.
“I know they are your friends Dennis, but you are not really that close of friends are you? I mean you have got thousands of dollars invested in your preps from what I see and I don’t understand you wanting to just give a bunch of them away like that. I still have not figured out how you managed to put so much food together with you having very little money coming in. ‘his mom quizzed him about where he got the funds to do so much preparedness.
‘It took me over 6 years to accumulate all that stuff a little bit at a time and I was back in school when I started on the project. I also moved back home with you for a while to help out while you were sick and I was in school so it was easier to accumulate extra food for storage with you buying most of the daily groceries for us. So all in all, it worked out well and we are lucky to have all these supplies on hand. Charles and Monica have food stored themselves for a couple weeks until they have to switch over to the couple months’ worth of beans and rice they got. We are going to augment the monotony of that and Charles and I will be hunting and trapping together and sharing game. This spring we both will have gardens so you see it’s not that big of an imposition and I really need their help for security, firewood cutting and a host of other things...” Dennis said wandering over to the kitchen cabinets and opening them up to survey the contents.
“I just have assorted cans of food stuffed in those cabinets and I didn’t put them in any particular kind of order, you want to try organizing them for us? I got plenty of room in my prep shed for whatever doesn’t fit in the cabinets.” Dennis said surveying all the boxes of food they had brought from his moms house in the city and knowing there was very little room left in the jumbled mess of his kitchen cabinets.
“Okay, that sounds like a good project for me. Move those boxes of cans closer to the kitchen before you go out please. Dennis, do you think I should try to get Monica to help me sort all these boxes out if we are going to be sharing some of this food with them?” Dennis’s mom Mary asked with a cautious look appearing on her face.
“Now that is a good question Mom. They
know I have a lot of food stored but they don’t know how much or exactly what I have. Let me think on that a second.” Dennis replied and went back to his cabinets for a quick survey of their contents.
“I said I would share with them if the SHTF, but that doesn’t mean I have to share and share alike on everything. Let’s do some high grading before we show everything we have got. I have lots of treats in here as well as some staples we are going to reserve just for us or maybe just share with others on a holiday or something. First off I want all the B&M canned bread, the cans of crab, oysters, most of the corn beef. Hang on a second; I need a couple empty boxes. I will be back in a minute; I have some in my prep shed.” Dennis advised and then went out to retrieve them.
“Geez! I have to do the same organizing and high grading in here!” Dennis murmured to himself as he eyed a large storage shelf unit that consisted of about 6 shelves filled three deep with expensive dehydrated canned food.
“I got to figure out a weekly menu and try to stick to it. No. 10 size cans don’t keep well once they are opened regardless if you put a plastic lid on it.” Dennis said pausing to look around the room and remembering he had had almost a full can of cornmeal go bad in 6 weeks after he had opened it and relied on the plastic lid to keep it fresh. Damn! I got 5 gallon buckets of rice and beans out the wazoo stored along that far wall. I guess we start eating some of that type of food a couple times a week to stretch the good stuff. Which reminds me, I have just a few cans of Mountain House seafood chowder and sweet and sour pork etc. that isn’t going into the communal larder just yet.” Dennis thought pulling the tarp back from the shelf and surveying row after row of what could be considered cans of riches these days.
“I ain`t believing I actually referred to anything called a community larder. I don’t know what to call what I plan on doing but it certainly is not that. This is my crap to give to folks or not give to them as I please and that best be remembered”. Dennis thought angrily as he stooped to pick up several empty boxes then locked his prep shed door and returned to his house.
His mom he noticed had opened every curtain in the house to “let some light in” as it was one of her morning habits in her own home and it didn’t sit well with Dennis today.
“Mom, the curtains can stay open today but we need to talk about when it is or is not appropriate to do so.” Dennis began before his mom angrily cut him off.
“Close them if you want to, I don’t know why you like a dark house. Probably to hide the last time you dusted and that looks like it has been awhile since you bothered too.” She said looking at the light coating of dust that appeared on the bookshelves and knick knacks she was standing next to.
“I said we could have them open today. Sit down mom and let’s talk a minute. Things are not what they used to be and we need to change our habits some. You want some coffee?” Dennis said walking towards the kitchen alcove.
“What are you going to make it on; I thought you said we need to conserve the propane?” She said walking towards the doorway.
“An induction cook top, it uses magnetism to heat the pot. Induction cooking uses induction heating to directly heat a cooking vessel, as opposed to using heat transfer from electrical coils or burning gas as with a traditional cooking stove. By the way mid range on this uses 600 watts, don’t stick it on high. I will explain why to you later. For right now just think of it as using up the battery too quick.” Dennis told her.
“You got it plugged into that SUNRNR generator?’ His mom asked looking at the extension cord poking out of cabinet.
“No, I got it running on two marine batteries I got hooked up separate to an inverter under the counter. Now remember, never put that thing on high because I only have a 900 watt inverter on it and that thing sucks 1300 watts on high.” Dennis instructed and decided there was plenty of time to teach her the ins and outs of solar electricity later.
While the kettle warmed up very quickly, Dennis explained the need for light suppression at night and the need for increased privacy during the day regarding the curtain issue.
“Nobody should be coming over except Charles and Monica don’t you think? “ Dennis’s mom Mary said eying the windows with the shades pulled fully back.
“Oh Lord, she isn’t quite getting the need for secrecy and security here!” Dennis thought to himself as he watched her peer out the window while standing directly in front of it.
“No, no one should be coming by but we need to talk about if they do. Some of these neighbors I know and some I don’t. James who has those ponds up the street might, which reminds me I need to talk to him in the next few days. I generally don’t talk to anyone else except him and Charles and Monica on this street. I don’t know anyone at all on the end of this street Look; I don’t plan on going anywhere for awhile so I will be here on the property with you. If anyone other than those three come by I will talk to them and you act sick in the background. Cough and hack like you got the flu or something. Hopefully they will keep their distance a bit more that way.” Dennis concluded.
“I get it! How is this.” she said mischievously and commenced a mock coughing attack.
“There you go! Don’t die on me now.” Dennis said laughing and turned to pour them some coffee.
“I am going to start picking out some cans of what we are separating for ourselves while we chat.” Dennis said sipping his coffee and placing an empty box on the counter.
“Where are you going to put it at when Monica comes over?” His mom asked as she began to search through the boxes of food they had brought from her house.
“Under your bed for now I guess.” Dennis replied to his mom.
“What time did you tell them to come down?” She asked.
“I told them I was going to walk up to their house about 9 or 10. I won’t be long and I can see our driveway entrances from there, plus I have a hand held radio you can call me on if you need anything.” Dennis assured her, glad he had remembered to charge the batteries on the Midland hand sets by hooking the charger to a Sears Die Hard jump starter.
“He would have to remember to charge the jump starter back up later. That’s something else he needed to sort out was his conglomeration of solar lighting, battery chargers, extra solar panels etc.’ Dennis reminded himself.
Dennis had everything stored where he could find it but setting it up and making sense out of it all might take him a day or two. He ran a small number of solar lights on a regular basis but now he had to get his full setup up and running. Dennis has been slowly accumulating what he needed to make his house run full solar on a small scale but kept a lot of equipment put back in case of a solar flare or something. Now he had to buckle down and get everything fully functional and coordinated.
“You think I should just pack up Charles and Monica some cans of food for now and sort the rest of this out later?” his mom asked.
“Uh, that’s not a bad idea but let’s let Monica do her own packing. I got a few reasons for doing it that way. How does this sound, we finish putting up what we don’t want to be seen by anyone at the moment and then you two separate out what’s left in these cabinets. My stuff is older than yours so we use it up first. We will give them two weeks of canned goods to start with and I will give them a month of dehydrated number 10 cans. This just looks like a whole lot of food. Its not, do this with Monica. Let me have those two empty boxes and I will show you what I mean.” Dennis said and waited on his mom to bring them in the kitchen.
“Ok I am going to do a day apiece of rations for their household and ours.” Dennis said separating the two boxes on the countertop.
“This ours and this one is theirs. Ok, a can of corn, a can of green beans and a can of Spam. That’s one meal for one day for two. I will give them a big can of oatmeal out of dehydrated stores so they get breakfast and dinner or lunch and dinner that’s it. Do the same for us and you see the cabinet is emptying pretty fast? I want her to see how fast that cabinet empties because we are forced to share with them. It
not only shows our generosity but what dire straits we are all in. I only have a few cases of spam so technically speaking as far they are concerned its gone in weeks. A can of cream of chicken soup and some rice, that’s a meal. I will be making bread once a week so add a can of tuna fish and that’s a second or third meal if they decide they wanted to eat oatmeal that day also. A can of chili, a can of potatoes etc. you see how quick everything well be gone out of this cupboard?” Dennis said letting what he was saying sink in and seeing the cabinet’s contents disappearing so fast with just separating those meager meals out.
