Prepper Fiction Collection: Four Books in One

by Susan Gregersen

  The weather warmed and the family started digging and turning the garden soil. They read the back of seed packets to learn the planting instructions. Grandma was positioned in a lawn chair nearby and gave them advice.

  “Plant your potatoes first, and the peas and lettuce,” she said. Then she got a dismayed look. “We don’t have any potatoes, do we? Well, plant the peas and lettuce. What else do we have?”

  The rest of the garden was planted over the next couple weeks and the first plants came up. The family was as excited as if they had created the whole idea of plants and gardening! Not a weed was to be found as they eagerly worked in the garden every day. Eventually as spring turned to summer their enthusiasm waned somewhat.

  The large strawberry patch began to produce and they had more than they knew what to do with. One day a neighbor lady came by on a bicycle and stopped to chat. Lonnie asked her how to can the strawberries.

  “Strawberries don’t can up well. You could slice them and dry them, or make jam. I can show you how to do that. Or…” she paused. “I have some chicks that hatched. I’d trade you half a dozen of them for some strawberries. Then you’d have eggs later on.”

  “That would be wonderful but we don’t know anything about how to take care of them, or have anything to feed them,” Lonnie said.

  “Oh, don’t worry, I’ll teach you all about it. They can pretty much take care of themselves over the summer, and I know Janice and Larry have a good chicken coop here,” she said, referring to Pete’s parents.

  “It’s a deal!” Lonnie said happily! Their chicks were delivered the next day and Lonnie gave her a box full of strawberries. She returned a few days later and helped Lonni make jam. In return, Lonnie gave her two of the pints of jam, and the lady promised to return her jars.

  Pete found a motorless reel lawn mower in one of the sheds and put the boys to work keeping the yard around the house mowed. He used the scythe to cut the tall weeds around the barn and sheds, leaving rough stubble. When the cut weeds dried he stacked and covered them to use as straw in the chicken coop.

  Neighbors had offered them rabbits, to get started raising their own meat, and they were hoping to trade for those soon. It would be easier to keep rabbits fed over the winter than chickens, since they could grow most of what the rabbits would eat.

  Grandma tinkered around with the treadle sewing machine and started mending clothes. In the past they had simply replaced clothing when it tore or otherwise wore out. Now they repaired everything until there was no way to do so, then it became rags.

  The fluttering of laundry drying on the line becamse a common sight. Lonnie loved using the wringer between the washtubs, then walking along pinning the clothes to the line. She and Grandma had had a good laugh over finding clothes pins in the laundry room, since Lonnie had been distressed about hanging laundry without pins back in the city!

  Between Grandma and the cookbooks Lonnie and Carrie learned how to make bread and biscuits and soups and other foods from scratch. Food never tasted better!

  One day a car stopped at the foot of the driveway and a man got out. The car drove away and the man gave a wave after it. He walked slowly up the driveway. Danny saw him first and ran to tell his Dad. Pete walked out to meet the man.

  “Oh my goodness! You must be Pete!” said the man. Pete stared hard at him and searched his memory to see if he knew the man.

  “I’m Dennis, your Dad’s cousin. You look just like him, only too young to be him!” The man held out his hand. Pete shook it and waited. “I struck out on my own after they closed the school, and I couldn’t keep paying the rent on my apartment. I taught science for 26 years. Betty, my wife, died 3 years ago, from complications of diabetes. We had but the one boy, and he’s in the army.”

  Pete did some fast thinking. This meant the man probably wanted to stay here, and he guessed he didn’t have the right to say no to a relative of his Dad’s. “Come on up to the house and meet my wife and kids,” he said finally.

  Dennis shouldered his backpack and pulled the suitcase-on-wheels he had with him. Upon entering the house he walked straight back to the kitchen and unzipped the backpack. On top were several foil bags. Dennis started scooping them out onto the table.

  “These bags are mylar, and in them are dried cheese powder, butter powder, powdered milk, yogurt, and sour cream.” He spread the bags across the table for them to look at. Under those, in the bottom of his pack, were dozens of candy bars and small bags of nuts.

  “Wow! What did you do, bust into a vending machine?” Danny asked in amazement.

  “Almost. These are from the teacher’s lounge at the school. While everyone else was cleaning out their classrooms, I cleaned out the vending machines in the teacher’s lounge. Students had already trashed the cafeteria vending machines and taken everything.” Now Dennis pulled the suitcase up to the table. He cleared part of the table and unzipped the suitcase.

  Everyone gaped with amazement to find that the suitcase was laden with jars and cans of meat, cheese, and butter. Some were store-bought, some were home-canned. There was canned hamburger meat, roast, chicken, ham, sausage, and even bacon. Canned cheddar, mozzarella, and cream cheese, plus butter.

  “Betty was into preparedness. She learned how to do all this and put a lot of it back. I brought as much as I could. I figured we could grow fruits and vegetables, but meat and cheese would be harder to come by.” Dennis looked down at the table as he spoke.

  “We’re grateful!” Pete said, clapping the man on his shoulder. “That suitcase must have weight a hundred pounds!”

  The next morning they opened a jar of sausage and had sausage, eggs, and toast for breakfast. The eggs had been bartered for with strawberry plants to the lady who’d traded them the chicks. Carrie had made the bread this time and was proud of her results. Lonnie praised her for catching on so quickly working with yeast.

  After the meal they all leaned back in their chairs and discussed their plans for the day.

  “Been fishing yet?” Dennis asked.

  “Fishing? No. Don’t really know what I’m doing in that department.” Pete said, somewhat sheepishly.

  “Can we? Can we?” asked Danny, about to burst with excitement.

  After a nod from Pete, Dennis said, “go to the garden and dig us some worms. I’ll go see about the fishing poles!” He went down the basement stairs and returned with half a dozen poles. On the back porch he blew the dust off them and looked over the line and reels. “Hmmm. Not in the best of shape, but they’ll do.”

  The boys came back from the garden with dirt and worms in a big peach can Lonnie had given them. The four ‘men folk’ walked behind the barn and through the field to the pond. Standing on the bank, Dennis carefully pulled a worm from the can and broke it in two. “Goes farthe this way,” he said, then speared the half-worm on his hook.

  Pete felt the warm sunshine soak into his shoulders and thought about how good it felt to be standing here in this quiet field, looking over the water at the trees beyond. It was hard to imagine that “out there” was cities and noise and turmoil. Here all he heard, besides the excitement from his sons, was the wind and birds.

  He looked at the boys. Danny had his tongue clenched in his teeth and Zack’s brow was furrowed as they undauntedly put worms on their hooks. Pete grimaced and wondered if either of them would put a worm on HIS hook for him!

  Dennis cast out into the water and reeled back in, explaining all the while about how to do it. The boys tried theirs, and after a few attempts that ended with their hook in the grass, they got their lines out in the water too.

  Dennis quickly caught and pulled in a nice largemouth Bass. A few minutes later everyone was busy pulling in bluegill and sunfish, throwing the little ones back, and putting the rest in a bucket. Three more bass were caught as well. Then they walked back to the house for a lesson in cleaning fish.

  That evening after a huge meal of fish, peas from the garden, biscuits, and strawberries, they sat in the living room
playing cards. Grandma had taught them several games, and they’d found board games in the hall closet too.

  “How come we never played these at home?” Carrie asked, after she won the last game.

  “No one wanted to. You had cable TV, internet, and video games. Remember?” Lonnie pointed out.

  “Oh yeah. Well, I think I like this better!” Carrie smiled as she put the cards back in the desk drawer. It had been a rainy afternoon and they had a small fire going in the woodstove. Thunder rumbled lazily in the background as the family sat there in contented silence.

  “Back in the old days we used to…” began Grandma. Everyone sat forward attentively. It wasn’t that long ago everyone yawned inside when someone started a story with that phrase. Now they paid attention because they were likely to learn something very useful for the world they now lived in. People were realizing the value of the elderly and the knowledge they had.

  Lonnie’s mind wandered as she gazed at her grandma. Years had fallen away and there was a zest to her, a liveliness she hadn’t had in the care center. She walked with confidence and had a glow from the sun and fresh air. She didn’t hesistate as she spoke, and she smiled a lot. In fact, Lonnie realized, Grandma’s wandering mind had stopped wandering and stayed in the present. Lonnie wondered why that was. She knew her grandma had been unable to fill her prescription for her cholesterol pills, but that had been the only medication she’d been taking. Surely the side effects from that hadn’t affected her so much?

  Well, whatever the cause, she was happy to see her grandma doing so well. She met the woman’s eyes and they smiled at each other.

  “What now?” Pete wondered the next day as a dog came running into the yard, barking it’s head off. He picked up a stick as he walked out to the front yard. Seconds later he flung the stick to the ground and hollered “Jake!” He ran to the dog and dropped to the ground, roughing the dog’s fur behind it’s ears. The dog licked his face with joy and leapt back and forth. Pete jumped to his feet and looked down the road. Two people were walking toward him, leaning on each other but steady.

  “Mom! Dad!” Pete hollered, running toward them. The kids came flying off the porch with cries of “Grandma! Grandpa!”. Soon the whole family was having a reunion in the front yard. They went up onto the porch and Lonnie’s grandma went inside and started the tea kettle. Janice and Larry sank into lawn chairs, weary from their ordeal. They’d been walking for days, and now they were telling their story.

  “Things were bad in Europe, but it seemed like they were failing here first. We knew if we didn’t leave soon, we wouldn’t get home. We got on a flight to New York around the first of May, but when we got there they detained everyone who had come on an international flight. They claimed it was a quarantine against viruses, but there was never any sign of sickness, other than the usual colds and flu,” Larry said, then took a sip of his tea. “Ahhh, that’s good. I’ve missed tea!” Janice spoke now.

  “We were taken on buses to a camp that looked like barracks from a military base. They separated men and women for sleeping quarters, but we were allowed to mix during the day in common areas. At first everything was done for us, and we were restless. Then the staff started disappearing and we were told to cook and clean. Soon they began dropping off supplies from trucks, then leaving and locking the gate. People began rearranging themselves and gangs and turf wars began. At least half of the people didn’t speak English. Soon, there were dead for the trucks to pick up when they brought our food.”

  Pete was horrified to think this had happened on American soil! And to his parents; his parents who were good, decent, law-abiding, tax-paying citizens. They looked like skeletons of their old selves. He brought his mind back to listen to what his Dad said as he picked up the story.

  “Then they stopped coming at all. No more deliveries of food, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, nothing. Rioting broke out and the gate of the camp was rushed and broken. Everyone fled. We fled. We walked for days, sometimes getting a ride, often not. Most of the time there was no food. Some towns gave transients a meal and a ride out of town, so we’d get to eat once in a while. We ate wild food from along the road, like dandelion, lamb’s quarter, and wild berries. It wasn’t filling though.

  “We were passing a farm in Ohio when your mother collapsed in the road. The kind family took us in for weeks, nursing her back to health,” he paused and reached over to hold Janice’s hand. “We did what work we could to help them, but could never repay them for the gift of health they restored to us. Then they found us a ride all the way to Sioux Falls with a relative who drives a truck for a medical supply company. Not drugs. Bandages and such. We walked from there. I think it’s been about a week.”

  “But… has society broken down completely? What’s going on out there? We’ve had no news for weeks!” Pete asked soberly.

  Larry sat quietly for a minute, looking down at the porch floor. He took a deep breath. “Congress and the president suspended pay for all government employees except for congress and the president. Then they passed a law requiring people to continue to go to their jobs. It’s against the law to quit or be fired. They announced that community food drops would begin, but people rioted. Stores were looted. Workers fled, and people started holing up in their homes. It’s chaos now.

  “The members of congress and the president, and their families, have been moved to a “secure location”. The military had it’s pay suspended but they were still to do the president’s bidding, but last we heard the military was ignoring the presidential orders and it looked like a revolt was about to begin.”

  “Revolt? Isn’t that an energy drink?” asked Danny quizzicly.

  “No, doofus! You’re thinking of Volt,” said Zach.

  “You’re both wrong! It’s Jolt!” said Carrie.

  “A revolt is like a rebellion. Sounds like the military is going to take back our country. Let’s hope it can be saved.” Pete said. Jake, the dog, was sitting with his head against Pete’s leg as he absently petted the dog. “So where was Jake all this time?” he asked.

  “We left Jake with Bill and Doris, a couple miles back up the road. We stopped to pick him up and see how they were doing. They’re struggling along but doing okay.”

  Janice and Larry rested for a few days, then insisted on getting busy helping. Everyone appreciated having them back, since they knew where everything was and how it worked. They had been taking turns over the summer cutting firewood. Larry got out the two-man crosscut saw and put different teams together to saw with it. Dennis and Larry gave a demonstration, getting a good back-and-forth rhythm going.

  “Piece of cake!” Zach said. It looked easy, the saw appearing to effortlessly glide across the log, despite the glistening of sweat on the mens’ foreheads.

  “Okay, then, you and Danny give it a try!” Larry said, stepping back. The boys took ahold of the handle on each end. They both pushed at once, then pulled, then glared at each other.

  “Don’t push while I’m pushing!” Danny yelped.

  “Let me start first, then you push!” Zach shouted.

  “No, boys, don’t push at all. You want to pull a crosscut. Here, Zach, you pull,” he said, his hand gently over the boy’s hand as he helped him pull. “Then Danny, now YOU pull!” The boy put both hands around the handle and pulled. Soon they were in a rhythm, slow and barely biting into the wood, but they were doing it. After a while they traded off and Pete and Lonnie worked against each other. It should have been “with” each other, but they were as bad as the boys about trying to push the saw instead of pulling it. Then Lonnie complaied that Pete was trying to pull her through the log.

  When everyone had had a turn and all were sweaty and tired, they decided to walk a mile to where the creek went under the road and play in the water. It was almost like old times, laughing and splashing and playing. On the walk home Lonnie thought about how lucky they were to have made it to the farm, and how much she enjoyed the time spent with family. She remembered the da
y she packed lunches for the kids for the first time. It seemed so long ago, so far away. She hoped that soon her children could begin to meet children on surrounding farms, make friends, and have something resembling a normal childhood, and someday have relationships that would lead to marriage and families of their own.

  She was scared for their country, being on the brink of war with itself. She didn’t know what that would bring to their lives. But for now, she was happy they were all warm, fed, and safe. The sun was dipping into the trees on the horizon and a chill rose out of the ditches on each side of the road. A “V” shaped flock of geese flew overhead, squawking and honking, looking for a place to settle for the night.

  “Fall will be here soon,” mused Grandma. “Then winter. See, aren’t you glad I still have my marbles so I can let you in on that!”

  “Oh, grandma!” said Danny as he giggled and took her hand. Zach took her other hand. The sun had sent when they entered the house and closed the door.

  The end.