by Randy Dyess
Thanksgiving went great for the Turner clan. A large number of Mark and Kelly’s relatives made the drive to Madill to share Thanksgiving on the farm. They were curious about the farm and Mark and Kelly’s new lifestyle. Once at the farm, everyone understood the reasons and attraction of following in Mark and Kelly’s footsteps. There were so many family members at the farm, Mark and Fred had to set up tables in one of the new barns Mark had built. This setup allowed everyone to sit at the same table and enjoy the conversation without having to talk over a football game like most people did in America. Today was a family day and everyone enjoyed being with each other so much without the normal distractions, Mark and Kelly volunteered to host the Christmas party this year. They agreed. Kelly and Cindy started planning the meal based on what was in the pantry and store room and what they should be able to find at the neighbors. They both realized they would have to plan on both meals next year as well, so they needed to adjust their garden and storage plans.
After seeing how everyone enjoyed being together for Thanksgiving and planning to repeat the dinner for Christmas, Mark started planning a new structure. This structure would server the farm as a summer kitchen, holiday kitchen and dining hall. He knew at least three more family members would need to find somewhere to live after the meltdown. He might as well plan on a large number of people living on the farm in the next few years. Mark figured it would less expensive to have everyone eat all meals together in a dining hall than it would be to try and supply multiple houses. Mark did not believe the electric would last long after the meltdown. He was already trying to outfit the farm with alternative methods of creating electricity like solar and wind generators. He also wanted to create biogas to replace propane, but couldn’t figure out how to afford to do this for a more than the first three homes on the property. Fred and Cindy were pitching in as much as they could and Kelly’s parents pitched in to help put in solar and wind for Fred and Cindy. Fred solved a piece of the puzzle by coming up with plans for a cheap wind generator. The generator could be built with a few parts. His only concern was he was afraid the parts might not be available long after a meltdown.
Everyone enjoyed the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas except for Kelly. Cindy had taken over much of the household chores for Kelly since Kelly was the only one working. While Cindy’s helped by cutting her workload, Kelly found herself becoming a little more depressed everyday as Christmas neared. Texas Restaurants wanted all restaurants scheduled to be closed, shutdown by the end of the year for tax reasons. Kelly had to make sure everyone was gone by the end of the year. It was a depressing job for her. She hadn’t become an HR person to fire large amounts of people at once.
Kelly found herself spending the time between the holidays waking up every morning saying, “Time to go fire more people and ruin their lives. She was looking forward to the last round of pink slips going out in the middle of December and not doing anything but the final paperwork and documentation during January. It wasn’t a surprise when she went into a tailspin and cried for several hours after receiving an email from the CEO the week before Christmas. The CEO asked if she could stick around until April to handle a new round of restaurant closings. She kept saying over and over, “Just how many more lives do they want me to ruin?”
Mark told her to say no, it wasn’t worth the mental anguish she was going through each day. She kept replying to him the extra three months income would come in handy over the next year. In the end, Kelly sent back a short reply to the CEO. The email said, “I better have six months full salary as a bonus in my next paycheck or I’m out of here at the end of January. I’m also taking the next two weeks off as a vacation.” The CEO sent the bonus the very next day. Kelly cashed the check and turned off her laptop for fourteen days of pure vacation without a single email or phone call being returned.
Chapter 22
January came in with a vengeance. A massive snow storm followed by two weeks of below zero temperatures hit all around the country. While Oklahoma is usually spared the worse of most winter storms, this particular storm did not spare any part of the country. The farm faced two inches of ice and eight inches of snow in a twenty-four period as the winter storm swept far south as southern Texas and Florida. The temperatures fell in the teens for two whole weeks which was unheard of in Mark and Kelly’s part of the country. Temperatures usually only went into the teens for a few days at a time, not for weeks at time. The farm suffered damage from the ice, but the major issue facing the residents of the farm was the loss of power for two weeks. Mark had set up both solar and wind power on the farm. He found out the amount of electricity they needed without being tied into the power company quickly overcame their system. They had propane heat, but when the batteries ran dry and the wind stopped, there was nothing to run the blower to move the heated air around the house. Luckily Mark had continued working on his disaster plans and had purchased two generators for occasions like this. He was able to tie one of the generators into the battery charging system and the other into the house’s electrical supply. All four families piled into Mark and Kelly’s house and lived out the two weeks of power outage in relative, if not crowded, comfort. Plans were made during the time to shore up the power supply of all the houses and to buy wood heaters and stoves for future winter storms. The farm residents also faced something none of them ever had to worry about in past winters. How would they keep all the water troughs around the farm free of ice in the winter? Worrying about frozen ponds and water troughs was not a southern problem. Most farms in southern Oklahoma and northern Texas didn’t have freeze proof outdoor water faucets or heated water troughs. While many people complained about the storm, Mark silently said a prayer the storm had happened when they still had money and the means to correct their mistakes.
The rest of the country was not as fortunate as the residents of the farm were. Many around the country were not prepared for a large and extended loss of electrify and froze in their own homes until the power came back on. Many people who required electricity to run home medical devices died as they tried to summon help that never came. Others tried to keep warm and only ended up burning down their house and other houses and apartments around them. The death toll rose in the tens of thousands by the end of the first week. The second week of the storm saw more death. Many households only ordered a month’s supply of heating oil or propane. They found themselves running out once they managed to get electricity to run their blowers. This would normally not have been a problem, but it was this winter as many Americans learned about the global fuel shortage the hard way during the storm. Suppliers did not have enough oil and propane to deliver more than the amount promised each month. There was no way to make up for the supply issues of millions of houses around the country. Those who used natural gas also faced problems getting enough gas to heat their homes. Companies and schools were forced to close down even where they had electricity because the natural gas suppliers couldn’t supply them with enough gas to keep them warm. America learned a hard lesson in January and Europe froze solid as their suppliers cut them off altogether.
Once the storm ended and Kelly was able to go back to work, she started sliding into a fit of depression. It wasn’t until Fred told her his feeling about what she was going through was she was able to enjoy the last few months of her employment.
“Kelly, can I talk to you about something personal.”
“Sure, Fred. What’s on your mind?”
“Everyone knows that you have been struggling with your work over the last few months and having to face another few months of layoffs is starting to depress you again.”
“I know,” Kelly said as she closed her eyes with a weary look on her face.
“I want to give you my opinion if you’ll listen to me. The first round of layoffs came as a shock to everyone. Texas Restaurants’ management made the decisions to fire people, you didn’t. The actual firing came from them and the restaurant managers, not you. All you did was supply paperwork.
You shouldn’t feel guilty about your part in it because you did not make the decisions. You were a cog in the wheel.”
Kelly looked at him like he was about to cross a line, but he continued anyway. “The second round of closing should not have been a shock to many people. The company had already closed a third of their restaurants. At this point, if you worked at another company restaurant that wasn’t packed with people every night, you should have seen the closure coming. People need to be responsible for their own futures. If they are working at a company losing most of its business and closing down locations, they shouldn’t treat it like a job with a future. They should have been worried and started looking for something else or planning on the day they lost this one. You are depressed about having to hand out paperwork to people right before Christmas. You are still thinking like everyone else. Everyone thinks Christmas is a time to go out and blow large amounts of money on presents most people didn’t need or didn’t want. They have forgotten Christmas should have been about family and not money.”
Kelly started to cheer up a little as she realized Fred was right. She didn’t fire anyone, management did. She didn’t ruin anyone’s Christmas. The fact everyone let Christmas be about money and presents and not family was her fault. Kelly started to feel a lot better and smiled at Fred as he finished up his line of thought. “This last round of layoffs you are handling. You should feel no guilt about because if you worked at any Texas Restaurant chain and business was down in the least bit, you should have known you were toast. I bet a lot of the people your company only stayed around this long because they didn’t want to look for another job. They don’t need to find another job. They think they will get something when they are laid off. Or are just plain stupid enough to think thousands and thousands of other people would be let go, but they would be immune. There is no one on your list that should be surprised when they get the slip. They should know it’s coming by now.”
“Thanks, Fred,” Kelly said with a smile on her face. “You’re right. I should just do my job, fill out my paperwork and collect my paycheck until the day Texas Restaurants is done with me. Why would I even want people to stay employed at a company that would let thousands of people go right before a major holiday? Any company would do what Texas Restaurants did, doesn’t deserve to stay in business. And given the amount of information out there, if you do not take enough time to worry about your own future, why should I worry about it for you?”
February rolled around and Mark was able to close out his 401k before America and the rest of the world got a good look at the horrible Christmas shopping season. The stimulus package of last year only spurred the economy for a short time and the rest of the year was a complete disaster for the American retail segment. It did not matter if you were employed or unemployed, you did not buy anything. American’s were slowing coming to realize they shouldn’t just buy something on credit because they have credit on their cards. They should only buy what was necessary until things turned around for the better. The greatest fear in the American economy started to come true. Americans started to live within their budgets and those budgets where not large. Mark was lucky enough to get his money before the stock market crashed. He had enough money from his 401k to erase all remaining debt, buy a few pieces of gold and silver, and buy everything on his list to outfit the farm. Mark was able to increase the electrical system and do some planning for more residents. There was not enough money to do anything about housing if other family members needed to move to the farm.
If the horrible Christmas shopping season did not put a damper on everything, then realization of the fuel shortage during the cold snap did. Gas prices responded to the fuel shortage by erasing their earlier drop after the stimulus and then went up even more. All-in-all, gas prices went up by $3.00 dollars in a matter of six weeks. Americans became outraged and congress started hearing after hearing on the matter of price gouging. Reports leaked out of the hearings saying it was not price gouging or speculation, but an actual global fuel shortage causing the spike in fuel prices. The government tried to cover it up and released a major part of the national reserve to bring prices back down. By the end of March it was too late to reverse the meltdown. People in America had seen the truth and did not believe in these types of lies anymore. Politicians found out lying no longer worked, so they had to scramble to solve a problem for once in their careers. They accomplished that by doing what American politicians always did when they wanted to look better in front of the American people, they went to war.
March and April were busy for everyone on the farm. They started laying out their gardens and planning for larger flocks and herds of animals to support the increased number of people living at the farm. Mark also convinced the farm members that their family members would either need to move to the farm soon or would benefit from the fresh food the farm produced. The garden space was tripled, chickens were brought in from large dealers, rabbits were left to do what rabbits do, and other farm animals were found and purchased. By the end of March, Mark figured they could feed at least two hundred people if everything grew and was harvested as planned.
Kelly’s job ended in April and everyone celebrated by hanging her ID card, shooting it, shredding it, burning it and scattering the ashes in the pig pen. She didn’t miss a step and closed out her laptop one day and turned all of her energies into the farm the next. Neither she nor Mark ever looked back at their old life with anything but scorn. Even when they came in after a long day in the garden soaking wet and covered in mud, they still preferred this life over the last one.
April also found the world at war. America led the way by looking at countries historically having the ability to produce natural gas and oil and told the truth for the first time in six decades. The American government told Libya, Venezuela, Iraq and Iran, “You have stated for decades you hated our guts and wanted us to be burned off the face of the world. You have oil and gas and we need it, so we are coming to take it.” Of course, the world just exploded with this statement and riots started happening everywhere. Middle Eastern countries exploded in violence toward America and Americans while European socialists took to the streets. China, Russia and other countries condemned American actions, but America said, “We don’t care. We need to fuel our citizens and you’re not going to do anything about it but complain. Go ahead and riot and burn your own cities down to the ground. We don’t care.” When Americans started to protest the wars, the government took to the airways. They showed Americans the tens of thousands of people who had just died due to a lack of heating oil. “Accept this and the deaths of your family each winter or accept we are going to war over oil.” Most Americans shut up and started supporting anything that could be done to extend their way of life another few years.
China, Russia, India, and a few other countries around the world started to follow suit. By the middle of May, any country which had natural resources and couldn’t defend themselves found foreign troops surrounding their gas and oil fields. It shocked the world when reports started coming in from all these “resource-rich” countries that there was nothing left of the giant oil and gas fields of the future. The conquering countries found only enough left in the reserve to supply their economies for another six months, at the most, before shortages start once again. Once the world found this out, it took the next desperate step to secure fuel for the future. Any and every spot on the planet earth once held, may hold, or even was suspected of having a drop of oil was raped and pillaged. It did not matter if the spot was in a nature preserve, a world heritage site or even under your grandmother’s back porch. If there was a possibility of fuel there, someone took it over by force and started sinking an oil or gas line.
Mark, Kelly, the residents of the farm, and the members of the community all took a long, deep breath and mentally prepared themselves for the next few months. They knew things would limp along for another six month, but figured by the start of next year. The meltdown would begin and they would face a coll
apse in society not seen since the dark ages. It was with this in mind, the farm held their last Memorial Day party. Memorial Day was not a party of the past, with hot dogs, hamburgers, and beer by the pool or lake. The party was a party with the first harvest of their new gardens and the butcher of a pig left over from last year. Memorial Day was a party not to celebrate the veterans of American wars, but to mark the passage of a way of life driven by cheap oil and gas. A way of life no one at the party thought would return for hundreds of years. As they watched the sun setting over the farm, they all knew it was setting on the only way of life billions of people around the world ever knew. Tomorrow’s rising sun would start the beginning of a new day and a new world billions would not survive.
Other Works by Randy Dyess
Out of Gas Series:
The Farm
Continue with the saga of the Turners and their family farm in Madill, Oklahoma as the world collapses from a global fuel shortage. This second novel of the series will start back a few months from where the first novel ended by describing in detail how Mark and Kelly Turner rebuilt the old family farm into a sanctuary that will be used by hundreds of family members and friends to survive the economic meltdown and the collapse of society. Join the members of the farm and community as they prepare and fight for survival against muggers, robbers, biker gangs, and the worse type of criminal that walks around the American countryside; the government bureaucrat.
