The Shelter: Book 1, The Beginning

by Ira Tabankin

  “No Mr. President, my guess is this was an American Special Forces group operating behind our lines.”

  “How did they get our weapons?”

  “Most likely grabbed them from one of our depots.”

  “Find and kill the Yankees. Send a squad of our best Spetsnaz to find these assholes before they do any more damage to us.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  When the Minister of Defense leaves Putin’s office, he lifts his secure telephone which connects him to a special operator, “Get me the Minister of Finance.”

  Within twenty seconds, the call is connected. “Mr. President?”

  “Complete taking down the American’s economy.”

  “Mr. President, hurt them or take them down completely?”

  “Crush them.”

  “Yes sir, I’ll issue the trading orders and dump the rest of our dollars and I’ll activate the last worms in the software we installed in their computer networks.”

  “Tell the world from now on we won’t accept dollars in payment for our gas and oil.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Twenty minutes later the New York Stock Exchange internal security department notices a huge surge in short trades, driving the market down fast enough that the stock market internal safeties are engaged to slow trading down. The safeties are designed to slow the sudden downward or upward pressures on the market. Many were put in place after the 1929 crash and improved after the 1987 crash. Even with the safeties engaged the market closed for the day down 600 points. While Russia is dumping all of their dollars, the Fed is trying to slow the fall of the dollar by buying dollars. By 2:00 PM, the Fed has purchased $1.8 trillion before the chairman of the Fed orders the purchase program shut down. The dollar continues to fall all night as the Asian markets open and China, followed by Japan, who has secretly signed a security treaty with China joins Russia dumping their dollars.

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  The world’s economies are in free fall due to the collapsing value of the dollar and the stock market crash. By the end of April, most of the Western World is on the verge of another depression. Europe has to reduce or stop most of their government assistance programs pushing Europe into a state of upheaval and rioting. The central governments in Greece, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Belgium have all resigned based on parliamentary votes of no confidence. Italy has governments form and collapse daily before the Mafia talks to the Pope. They jointly agree to govern the country. France breaks up into Muslim and warlord controlled areas. Paris is a burnt out shell of a once beautiful city. The kings of Spain and Belgium both disband their parliament, they rule by decree to pull their countries off the edge of the cliff. Switzerland closes their border, they expel all none citizens and lock their country down. Since every citizen is armed, they are asked to carry their weapons all the time to stop riots. Anyone without a valid ID card is deported.

  Canada finds itself with French-speaking Quebec seceding from the Union of Canada, the large Chinese population in Victoria demand the right to turn most of Victoria into another Hong Kong. Alberta demands the right to either join the USA or go their separate way, they are sick of the high taxes and dual language laws. Alberta’s economy has been damaged by lower oil prices. However, they are still viable due to a mix of high technology companies combined with their oil production.

  The population in China’s major cities demanded more freedoms. They demanded an end of the one-child rule and an end of the Army picking people off the street to work as slaves in factories. The economic slowdown forces many of China’s ODM factories, like Foxconn, to be forced to fire over three hundred thousand workers. Most are tossed out of the factories without any sort of severance. China’s new middle class takes a beating from the layoffs. People take to the streets demanding the Chinese government help them. The Communist Party of China deploys the Chinese army to stop the protests. China’s army crushes the protests, China’s communist party announces a new series of prodemocracy movements to calm their population. Putin watches China loosen the strings on their people. He waits for the right time to strike like a vulture waiting for its prey to die so it can feed. Putin knows in less than a year Russia could be the world’s sole superpower, enabling him to rule the world. He decides to make an offer to China, one they won’t be able to refuse.

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  When Fred and I return from San Antonio, we’re surprised to find our neighbors fighting among themselves. Everyone in our compound is standing in the front yard yelling at each other. I try to stop the screaming and yelling without success. Fred leans on the truck’s horn which finally stops the arguments. I yell, “What the hell is going on?”

  Paul says, “We can’t agree on the trench. I want it to be dug by the backs of our homes. Randy wants it to go in the front and then cut across the backyards of our homes. That’s twice the work and it will cut into our fields, reducing our crop yield. Randy refuses to dig in the rear of our homes. Flo doesn’t want her garden touched.”

  Randy yells, “If we cut the trench in the rear of our homes we won’t be able to use it to defend the front of our homes which face the street.”

  Paul, yells back, “That’s why we’re cutting the trenches cutting across our driveways.”

  The yelling goes back and forth like a group of five-year-olds on a school playground that can’t get along. I nod to Fred, who leans on the horn again. The yelling finally stops, everyone looks at me, “I thought I made the plan clear when we got together three nights ago. What the hell happened? Why didn’t you call us?”

  Paul replies, “We didn’t get around to starting the trench until today. We knew you were due back today, so there was no reason to bother you.”

  “Why didn’t you start the trench until today?”

  Randy laughs, “Jay, we’re farmers. Farms in the spring are very busy places. We have been working on getting our crops planted. We assumed planting was the most important job, which is why you bought our farms to begin with.”

  “You got me there, I forget about the work involved in farming. I’m afraid to hire people because I want to keep the trench a secret. Anyone we hire is going to talk, when they do, a smart gang leader may decide how to get around our defenses. We have to work out a plan that covers both the farming and the work on our defenses. Plus, I’ve been thinking of building underground shelters under the new barns.”

  Paul’s son, Joe raises his hand. “Joe, you don’t need to raise your hand, what’s on your mind?”

  “Sir, if we teenagers could skip school for a couple of weeks, we could dig the trench or work the fields while our fathers dig the trench. We skip school in the fall during harvest time, we’re not doing much in school and many of the teachers don’t show up anyway since the union couldn’t get them a raise.”

  This was an idea that hadn’t occurred to me. “Joe, I think I need to discuss this with your parents. It’s an interesting idea. I tend to forget that on farms everyone in the family works.”

  Paul laughs, saying, “Jay, the current administration tried to stop our children from working until they reached eighteen and only then worked a limited number of hours a week. They were trying to put us out of the farming business. They wanted us to hire full-time employees, which we’d have to give benefits, sick days and vacation time to work our fields.”

  “I take it you showed them the front door?”

  “We tried, but they kept coming back. Many of us got into financial problems last fall when we were forced to hire people and pay them $9.00 an hour. Many didn’t last a day, we constantly had to train new people, cutting into our crop yields, our costs increased and our yields decreased. The local manager from the Department of Labor came around just before you arrived in town to tell us we had to hire more people this year. In fact, he’s due to return within the next week to check on the people we hired this year. He told us he wanted to see the printed benefits program and make sure we hired a good mix of men, women and all races. We told him sometimes the
re’s not an even mix looking for work. He told us if we didn’t meet the government-mandated mix ratios for workers, he’d shut us down.”

  I shake my head saying, “Since the gates have been installed at our driveways, make sure the no trespassing signs are mounted today. If he still shows up, send him to me.” I said, smiling like the Cheshire Cat. Everyone smiled and nodded thinking the government manager was about to get a surprise. “Now let’s discuss the trench.”

  Paul said, “Jay, it’s OK with us if Joe works here a few days versus going to school where he’s not learning anything. We used to homeschool him until the local department of education told us we couldn’t homeschool our children any longer.”

  “I’m not aware of any law to that effect. From today on, any of you who want to homeschool your kids can do so. Contact the school so they know, if you get contacted by the department of education, send them to me. With that agreed to, let’s review the role of the trenches. They’re to provide us fighting positions in case of an invasion of our farms. The trench in our driveways is to stop vehicles. It won’t stop an attack by people on foot. We need the trench to go from the front of our homes, circle them and wrap around the back of the houses so we can fight anyone who attacks from the front or rear.”

  Rich says, “It’s going to cut right through our fields.”

  “Rich, we’ll lose a little yield, but it may save our lives, isn’t that a good trade?”

  All nod their agreement.

  Paul asks, “What toys did you guys bring home?”

  Fred answers, “Military weapons, you won’t believe what we have.”

  Unloading the truck, everyone’s eyes are wide in surprise. I tell everyone, “I think we need to arrange some range time to ensure everyone can fire every weapon we have.”

  Jill asks, “What about us women?”

  “You also. When the time comes, everyone is going to have to fight.”

  Rich asks, “We’re also confused how deep to dig the trench, some of us remember you saying five feet. That won’t provide full coverage.”

  “Remember, the soil you remove will be made into sandbags which will be placed along the trench. We’ll leave firing ports in the piles of sandbags. I forgot to mention, we’ll need fire extinguishers, lots of them. We also need a few hundred empty glass bottles.”

  Paul says, “I guess we’re going to be making Molotov Cocktails.”

  “Right you are.”

  Paul says, Joe, why don’t you and Matt go to town, buy up all the fire extinguishers you can find.”

  “Dad, all of them?”

  I reply, yes, all you can find while you’re in town get a few bundles of steel reinforcing rods.”

  “Yes sir, we’re going.”

  When the kids leave on the shopping trip, Fred looks at me asking, “Jay, why the fire extinguishers? We have fire suppression systems built into our homes and barns.”

  “Just in case, call it a plan B.”

  Fred says, “I understand. By the way, a friend of ours has a large field we use as a gun range.”

  “I’d rather no one know we have fully automatic weapons or even the types of weapons we have.”

  “Jay, I’ll check, but I don’t think he’s back from Florida yet.”

  “Good, let’s go in tomorrow at sunrise.”

  Everyone nods their agreement. We break up, Fred and I unload the weapons into my basement, Paul and Randy start spray painting the ground orange where the trench will be dug. When they’ve encircled our homes, Paul gets in one of the backhoes to begin digging the trench in the front while Randy starts digging the rear trench. I’m worried we’re running out of time. I’m also worried about my kids and their families. As the American economy falls apart, I weekly call my kids begging them to bring their families to our compound. I worry when the shit finally hits the fan it won’t be safe for them to make the trip. I’m worried the longer they delay, the more dangerous it’s going to be for them to make the trip. I’m most concerned with Sammi since her husband Ricky always thought I was so far to the right I made Attila the Hun look moderate. I know he doesn’t want to come here. He most likely thinks he’s going to be safe in the middle of Iowa. My gut says, nowhere is going to be safe when the dam breaks. Sure enough, Sammi confirmed my worst thoughts, they aren’t coming unless they’re driven out of their home. Ricky still has his job, he thinks everything will quickly settle down and turn around when the President increases the welfare payments. I pray they wake up before the violence starts.

  With the dollar in free fall, gold and silver’s value increased almost every hour. When the violence started, it didn’t take anyone by surprise. Welfare payments were cut and people couldn’t put food on their family’s tables. Different groups came together to march against the welfare cuts. Hundreds of thousands marched, tens of thousands rioted setting cities and towns on fire. Buses carried the rioters into middle and upper-class communities. Private security companies and police fought the rioters, running gun battles broke out between those trying to protect and those who want to destroy. The battles rage across the country. The violence became so bad, the gun fighting so intense, many first responders refused to enter cities and towns. Police refused to go to work, many are seen as agents of the government who reduced the welfare payments, the police are attacked wherever they were seen. Their homes are burned. Government workers are attacked for the reduction of welfare payments. Many towns repainted their police cars to look like regular cars. Marked police cars come under fire as they drive through neighborhoods.

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  Even with two backhoes it takes us three weeks working in two shifts to cut the trenches in a circle around our homes. Filling sandbags with the removed soil goes much slower; in fact, we give up the idea. We decide to push most of the soil into wooden forms that form 45-degree triangles in front of the trenches. I’m hoping the 45-degree angle and the densely packed soil will stop most bullets fired at us. We leave spaces for us to shoot out from the trench. We rigged strong lights on poles that can illuminate the area in front of our front trench which will shine in any attacker’s eyes, hopefully blinding them from us.

  We all spent time at an abandoned mine learning how to handle all of our weapons, with the exception of the RPG. I didn’t want to use one of our limited rockets nor did I want the explosion to bring people to see what was going on. We taught the kids how to make Molotov Cocktails, they made 200 of them, most standing ready in wooden cases spread along the inside of the trench. We’ve also placed different types of acid in glass bottles. I’ve asked Paul and Randy to figure out how to make WP weapons. I was able to buy out a chemistry company’s inventory of WP and other chemicals they usually sold to schools. With the economic downturn, schools didn’t have funds to replenish their stocks. We have twenty pounds of it which ought to come as a nasty surprise to anyone attacking us. We store it in glass jars which will break when striking anything or anyone.

  Being farmers, Fred was able to purchase fifty pounds of TNT to clear tree stumps. We’re using it to make pipe bomb hand grenades. Small, thin pipes are filled with TNT, covered with nails and BBs held onto the pipe with either wax or glue. To light the fuses we bought over 400 electric fire starters. Paul’s wife Flo somewhere found 500 pounds of barbecue charcoal that showed up in her new barn. I figured it would come in handy. I also bought each family a small four seat ATV, which can quickly move between our homes. The ATVs operate in any weather and they’ll save us fuel versus using our cars. Each family member assigned to fighting was given body armor, a helmet, rifle, sidearm and 100 full magazines. Each family has a first aid kit and a FLIR portable thermal sight.

  We contacted every company that sold underground shelters. The first five agreed to accept our purchase order and gave us a timeline, only to back out of the contract within 48 hours of when they were due to begin work. One construction company called to offer me what he said is an offer I won’t be able to turn down. He told me his name is Franco, his tw
o sons work with him. He tells me he has experience building storm shelters. I tell him, I’ll listen to his proposal if he comes by in person to discuss the plans and his offer. While Fred and I were away, Paul and Randy placed an order for cows, pigs, chickens and four horses. The animals reinforced our need to expand our barbwire fences which we’ve finally succeeded in stringing along the front of our property along the street. We cleaned out all of the barbed and razor wire in the Nashville area that the police hadn’t already taken for riot control so we could string it all around our property.

  We installed motion activated lights and cameras on poles covering the fence. Each of our driveways has two covered trenches cut into them and we’ve dug hundreds of small holes which we hope will stop people on foot trying to attack us. Many of the holes have hunting traps placed in the bottom of them. Others have boards with large nails sticking up and a foot stepping into a hole will force the nails into any boot or shoe rendering the person unable to continue. The last item on my checklist is an alarm system that alerts all of us to any issues. Each family has different colored flares, I wanted some type of alarm that we can hear anywhere on the farms, an alarm that would also tell us which family was sounding the alarm. We were working on different ideas when we got our first uninvited visitor.