by Randy Dyess
“Kelly is going to be amazed when I tell her about this.”
“So is Donna. She’s starting to think of you two as friends and will be thrilled to know we may be spending the rest of our lives down the road from each other.”
Owen went back to their main discussion by saying, “As I was saying. Our community is not a typical survivalist group. We do not all live together or plan on living together after the meltdown and we do not have a leader. Everyone is free to do what they think is necessary for their own survival and we encourage everyone else to copy as much from each other as possible. We don’t force you to learn to defend yourself. If there is ever a group of criminals in your area, we would not guard your farm if you have not tried to defend yourself first. We have several ex-military and law enforcement members and they are more than willing to train others or come to their aid if something is happening. You have to make the initial effort to defend yourself before calling them. Our main purpose is mutual support. If someone comes up with an idea, they present it at one of the meetings and others agree with the idea they meet afterwards. If you do not agree or do not want to do what they come up with, you don’t. No one forces you to do anything. We have sub-groups meeting and training for various things: militia tactics, emergency care, communications, herbal medicine, self-defenses, etc., but you are not forced to join any one of them. Many of us do attend as many meetings as possible in order to better prepare ourselves for problems, but there is no ‘attendance’ taken.”
“So how many people are involved?” Mark asked.
“We have around fifty families with land around Madill. Another ten families living in Madill but do not have land. Most of the families with land are going to have relatives move in with them when things go south. One of the members is a retired army colonel and he will have around 600 people living on his ranch if everyone makes it. All-in-all we will probably end up with close to 2,000 people living either in Madill or on land west of Madill.”
“2,000!” Mark exclaimed. “That’s a lot of people to try to get to live together.”
“It is,” responded Owen, “but you have to remember a few things. The majority of those people have been trained by RJ or one of RJ’s students. They have been picked for certain reasons and everyone brings some unique skills to the overall group. We are not bringing in anyone off of the streets who is willing to put up with us. Everyone, including those living on the individual farms undergo a background check before they are allowed to be included in the communities programs. If you want someone to live on your land and the person does not pass their background check, you can leave the community or not allow them on your land. Whichever one of those solutions you prefer.”
“What would be a reason someone would not be included?”
“Drug convictions. Felonies. Anything we think would make the person unsuited to live around others without causing problems. We’ve asked members to leave because they became controlling and would not stop trying to ‘run everything’ or became angry when they didn’t get their way. We don’t have enough time or resources to put up with other’s self-important attitudes. Because of our training with RJ, we all tend to think and act alike. Yes, there are a few differences, but so far the differences are not far enough apart it would fracture us. The ex-colonel, Andy Brown, and his ranch hands do put on quite a show when they are all decked out and patrolling the area. Andy is the unofficial military officer of the group and there are several other small groups as well. Fred Williams has about fifty people on his farm who were in the military or are law enforcement officers. Fred and Andy have divided up the area and will help secure different pieces of the community. In fact, Fred’s ranch is north of our land. We should go over to his ranch one day and let me introduce you to him so you can meet him. He and his group will be one of the primary responders if anyone in our area puts out a call for help.”
“You said most of the members have skills you want them to use or train others in. It sounds like you are recruiting me and Kelly to join the community. What skills do we have that you need?”
“We are recruiting you. It’s already been discussed and RJ, Donna, and I will sponsor your membership. While is not a guarantee of membership, you still have to be investigated, but it should help you become a member at the next meeting. Membership is voted on by those who attend the meetings. We feel we need Kelly’s HR skills to start putting together better rolls and member documentation. We have dozens of members who are being left out because of our growth in the last few years. We need her to organize everything like she would in an HR department.”
“We’ll have to ask her, but I’m sure it would be acceptable. What about me? What do I have to bring to your table?” Mark asked.
“Your attention to details and planning skills,” Owen responded. “We need someone who can go around to all the different farms and go over their emergency plans and long-range plans. Someone who can take those plans and then poke holes into the plans like you did a few years ago with the DR plans we had the consulting firm create.”
“That was easy, those guys didn’t do a good job,” Mark interrupted.
“Maybe not, but you are the only person who caught they were missing a lot of stuff. You may not know it, but you do it all the time. You seem to come up with the minor things blowing other’s plans all to hell. We want you to do that for the community.”
“I don’t know as much of the survival stuff as you or the others do. How would I catch something you wouldn’t?”
“Your inexperience is a plus. Because you are inexperienced, you don’t assume anything or take something for granted. I’ve heard some of your plans so far. You’ve caught things I haven’t caught because I assumed something would work or be there when in fact it may not be.”
“Ok, I can buy that. What do I need to do now?”
“Talk to Kelly and if she agrees with you about joining the community, tell RJ when you see him. I doubt if the investigators we have will turn up something to keep you from being a member.”
“I’ll do it when I get home. What about you? What are your skills you bring to the community?”
“I’m a communications buff. I help everyone with their radio equipment so they will be able to talk to each other if the phone systems go down. I also work with a few other members on securing our communications from prying eyes. We have an encryption system in place for communications we do not want others to read.”
“Like what? Secret bunkers or something?” Mark chuckled.
Owen looked at him with a serious look on his face and replied, “Yes. We have certain items hidden the government wouldn’t want us to have, but we feel are necessary for our own safety when the government leaves us high and dry. Those items are nothing the rest of community wouldn’t agree with, if you asked them. We want some explosives around to defend ourselves or blow up a bridge or two if they are allowing us to be overrun with refugees or criminals. Things like that. Also, we have a large amount of medical supplies cached. Many of us are afraid if the government found out about them, they would try to confiscate them for their own use and not ours. There have already been presidential executive orders signed by recent administrators allowing the government to take about anything they want from private individuals during times of crisis. We don’t want them to come and take everything away from us that would allow us to live safely after a meltdown.”
“I didn’t know about those orders. I might want to build a few hidden storage areas on my farm as well. Hide a few things from anyone who wants to take stuff away from me. I’m not going to be stingy with someone who is in trouble. I plan on sharing as much as I can. I’m not allowing someone to take something one of my girl’s needs or Kelly needs because they think they are authorized to do so by some government flunky.”
“That’s the way the rest of us feel as well. We are willing to share the majority of our stuff with others, but all of us keep some things hidden from everyone else. Most of us are af
raid some level of government will try to raid every house and farm in the county to confiscate goods for their own use. We are not going to allow that to happen.”
“What else do I need to know? Sounds like you are just scratching the surface.”
“I am. RJ will fill you in on some more when you talk to him. Once you are official, I will tell you more and start introducing you to members of the community. Some of them have small businesses we order supplies through. This allows us to get the supplies at cost plus taxes. Using our members’ businesses will save you a lot of money when you are first starting out. Also, we all have a little extra seed or animals we will give you or sell you very cheaply so you can get good quality stock for your farm. You may not realize it, but the majority of the animals you would try to buy may not do well on the land without a lot of feed and medicine. The animals you would get from us have been raised on pasture like you will have and are suited for the area. Helps to start right and not have to adjust the genetics of your animals so they can live with the weather in southern Oklahoma. Certain breeds seem to do better and tend to live just fine on our lands without babying them.”
“You’re right, I’ve haven’t taken that into account. I’m still thinking like a city person who thinks a cow is a cow or a pig is a pig. I’ve haven’t thought about the fact some breeds would not do well in our heat or during a drought.”
“Right. Same thing with the vegetable seeds and fruit trees. We can start you out with seeds from plants which are suited to our weather. Don’t get me wrong, I am always trying out new varieties, but it does seem like a handful of types grow in our area with no help at all. You might as well build your garden and future diet around food that does not take extreme amounts of care to keep alive during one of our hot summers. Hot and dry will kill most plants, but why not grow things that live the longest under those conditions.”
“Another thing I haven’t even considered. I was going to buy some heirloom seeds from a few catalogs and plant them. I haven’t even considered it would take a few years before I had a line of plants that survives our climate better than other plants would.”
“A lot to take into account, huh?”
“Yes, sir. Makes me want to laugh at all those ‘experts’ who think you can leave your house and run out to the country and set up shop when the meltdown occurs. They don’t even have a clue about the amount of work it would take to get everything up and running. Nor do they know enough to keep it running when you can’t drive to the nearest Tex-Mart for something when you make a mistake. I guess that is one of the underlying problems with everyone today. Everyone is so arrogant about their abilities and so clueless about what it takes to do stuff. They think they can do something because someone they think is beneath them makes it look so easy.”
“I know. I’ve run across those types of people a lot lately with the way everyone is raising their kids. Someone right out of college who has read a book or two often think they know everything. They just don’t know enough to know that they do not know enough, if you know what I mean.”
“Yep,” Mark replied. “That is one of my favorite sayings, ‘You don’t know enough to realize you do not know enough’. I say this to people all the time.”
“I guess we better get back to work and act like we care. Although, I doubt if anyone there has a clue we have been gone most of the day. They are all too busy trying to jump ship with their stock options intact to care about anything else is going on. These next few months are going to be a charade. We know things are going to be closed up, but can’t act like it now. Fun, Fun, Fun,” Owen said while rolling his eyes.
Chapter 18
That evening when Mark arrived home, he told Kelly everything said during lunch. It did not take her long to agree with him about joining the community Owen told him about. She thought they should bring the community up again when they talked to RJ on Saturday. Kelly reminded Mark, her parents were coming over for dinner to discuss the farm and dad’s retirement. Mark didn’t even have to think twice before asking Kelly to bring up the idea of her parents selling their house and moving out to the farm. Maybe, they could move into Mark and Kelly’s house until they arranged something at the farm. No reason not to make use of all the space they had until they sold the place.
After eating a great home-cooked meal, Kelly’s parents told her they were amazed at her new found cooking skills. Kelly replied cooking was part of her new life. Mark excused himself and went upstairs to start the kids on a movie. He wanted to get out-of-the-way until Kelly could get her dad to start discussing the retirement issue.
“Dad? Do you want to talk about the financial problem you brought up last weekend?”
“I don’t know what to say? The city slashed my pension and what they are going to leave me with is not enough to pay our bills. I’ve been thinking it over ever since I got the damn letter and I don’t know what we are going to do. I spent fifty years with them and never thought I would need anything else other than my pension. I have nothing else saved. Without that pension, there is nothing.”
Kelly and her dad talked a little more about the situation. He soon opened up about some of the ideas he had about what needed to be done to help them survive. Kelly’s mom rolled her eyes at some of the ideas because at their age there would be no way they could start a business or find new jobs. The only thing she could see would be to move into the smallest rental they could find and try to live off of Ted’s reduced pension. She was surprised when Kelly said, “Why don’t you two sell your house before it’s too late and move in here?”
“What? You don’t want us to move in here. You two have enough going on without having us in your hair,” Helen said.
“Yes, we do, but it doesn’t mean we don’t want you,” Mark interrupted them as he came into the room.
“Mark’s right. Not only do we want you to move into here right away. When we sell this place and move out to the farm, we want you to come with us. You can move out to the farm as soon as we get the land ready. Use the money you make from your house to build something small out there. We’ll join you as soon as we can.”
“Isn’t that a little extreme,” Helen said. “I’m sure the city will come around and raise Ted’s pension back up. This is just a little bump in the road.”
“Mom, don’t be too sure of that. Like we were trying to tell you on Sunday, we think things are going to get a lot worse. Nothing will get better. Dad’s pension will not be raised back to the level you are used to. I bet the next letter you get will be in less than a year. It will tell you they are cutting the pension even more or doing away with it all together.”
“They’re right, Helen,” Ted said. “I talked to Jim and he said the new guys being hired in are not even offered a pension. They have to make due with one of those 401ks and social security when they retire. Jim also said anyone with less than fifteen years of service have already lost their pensions. Those guys have to struggle to start paying social security and build up their 401ks before they can retire. I was the last group of workers to retire with a pension and I’ll be damn lucky if I get to keep it.”
Helen sat with tears in her eyes and said, “What will we do, Ted? How will we live?”
“We have to trust Kelly and Mark. It seems they are some of the few people to have put this together enough to start thinking about the failure of America. It’s hard to accept, but they may be right and America might not exist in the next decade. It may only be a fantasy to our politicians in the next few years and dead after that.”
“What will we need to do?” Ted asked.
Mark and Kelly talked to her parents for a few hours. In the end, everyone decided Ted and Helen would put their house up for sale and start to cut their expenses to the bone. Helen has some ideas about how to build something at the farm. Helen and Ted always wanted to travel in their RV full-time. She figured if the RV was good enough for them when traveling, it would be good enough for them until they could get something else figu
red out. Mark and Kelly also brought up the community Owen had told Mark about and this shocked both Ted and Helen. They had a hard time believing so many people thought the same way Mark and Kelly did about the future. They sat amazed when Mark told them about the thousands of people who would be living in their area. They did not believe him when he said there were millions of Americans who thought the same way and were preparing for a meltdown. To Ted, it seemed only his generation still believed in America and Mark and Kelly’s generation had given up on the promise of a better life. Mark agreed with him and showed him web site after web site with facts and figures showing the decline was happening and how it was too late to stop it. Mark said all he and many others wanted to do was survive the initial meltdown in good enough shape they could help rebuild later. Mark showed him web sites showing how people were trying to save as much knowledge as they could. They were putting away tools and equipment so when the world stabilized after the meltdown, they could reintroduce many of the advantages our society had over earlier societies. He ended up showing Ted and Helen a web site in which the author had spent years trying to figure out how to rebuild a computer manufacturing plant from scratch. This guy had enough old manufacturing equipment stored in his shelter he could rebuild large but working computers and hook them together with a wireless network. He was ready to become a computer titan when most of the world would still be wondering how to find their next meal.
“A little ambitious, isn’t he?” Ted laughed.
“Yeah. He might be on to something, but I think it will be a bit before people need computers again. I wish he would put his energy into keeping medical equipment up and running. It would be nice to have functional operating rooms during the whole time.”
Helen and Kelly went up to give the girls their baths and put them to bed. After they left the room, Ted looked at Mark and said, “There’s going to be a lot I don’t get, isn’t there? Why would anyone worry about not having hospitals available? But when you really think about it, why would I assume anything we have today would be available?”
