by Ira Tabankin
“Yes we are, we don’t have a lot of resources so we work on it when we can. The floor will be finished in two days. You can see most of the preformed concrete outer walls waiting to be installed. When the walls are up and their steel support beams installed, we’ll install the interior walls and the ceiling which is also preformed sections of concrete. We’re going to use the steam shovel to lift the preformed sections into place. We’ll bolt them to the steel beams. The roof will go on in sections to allow us to finish the interior rooms. The final roof will be the soil we removed from the hole. We’ll cover the shelter so it’s not visible. If we get overrun, we’ll be able to survive in the shelter. Once the roof is covered, we’ll plant crops in the soil so in a few months no one will know there’s anything buried under the fields.”
Tony doesn’t take his eyes off of Matt working the fresh concrete. “Jay, how long are you planning on staying underground? How do you power the shelter?”
“Tony, we have external electrical power running into the shelter from solar panels and the windmills. I’m thinking about ordering some generators, that’s if we can find any. We have wells providing us fresh water and sanitation pipes to move our waste into septic fields. We have food, weapons, medical supplies and clothing for different seasons. We’re assuming that if we’re overrun and have to hide in the shelter, our invaders will think we took off without realizing we’re hiding right under their feet. How long we have to stay hidden depends on how long our uninvited guests decide to stay. I’m hoping that after they use up the supplies we’ve arranged for them to find, they’ll move on.”
“Jay, what happens if those who overrun you decide to stay around for a while? Maybe they know how to farm and like your homes? You’ll be stuck underground, maybe without power or having to face the attackers who’ve taken over your own homes.”
All of our neighbors are listening to our conversation, “Tony, we’re assuming the shelter can remain hidden. We’re assuming that whoever overruns us will do so like a swarm of locust, they’ll strip the easy to find supplies and move on to their next source of food. We think we’ll be able to hold our homes and land unless we’re hit by a group of several hundred, which won’t happen for a while after any collapse. I think most people assume the government agencies will show up to provide help within a day or two, just like Katrina and Sandy. I think what the news is reporting tonight is the next step in the collapse. I think if the market opens tomorrow it’s going to crash like a lead balloon falling out of the sky.”
Tony smiles saying, “Jay, you didn’t answer the question.”
“Tony, if the invaders stay, we’ll have to sneak out at night to kill them. I don’t think we’d have any other choice.”
Tony also looks around the room, shaking his head saying, “Jay, that’s a very big assumption. You’re betting your life and the lives of your family, loved ones and neighbors on a theory that’s never been proven. I agree that many people may wait for help to arrive but when a day or three goes by and they realize no help is coming, all hell is going to break loose. That’s human nature. There’s only a few days of food in Nashville or any city. When the food runs out, those in the city are going to do anything they can to find their next meal. They’re going to loot every store, restaurant and home they come across.” Tony pauses to look around the room, no one is speaking, some are holding their breath. Tony continues, “Any force that succeeds in overrunning the farms isn’t going to be stupid. They’ll have numbers and brains. They’ll figure out you must be hiding someplace. They’ll cut the leads from the solar panels and windmills cutting your power. Without the power you’ll lose your pumps, you’ll lose your freshwater and sanitation. You’re going to be jammed together in the dark, thirsty and pissing on each other. You’ll break out into the arms of those holding your property. When the waves of people hit, you’ll be overrun, beaten and killed.”
“Tony, we have automatic weapons, and some RPGs, we have the new supply that should be here in 24 hours or less. We have our trenches and…”
“Jay, families of the farms, you have nothing. You’re building an underground shelter because none of you believe you’ll be able to hold back the hordes of hungry, desperate people for long. You plan to attrite them and slow them down so that you have time to escape to your shelter. What if they follow you to your hidden entrances? What if they catch and hold a couple of your children and force you to open the shelter’s hidden doors? Or maybe one of the wives? How will you react when your loved one’s screams penetrate the ground and rip your guts?” Tony stands silently in the middle of our family room looking into our empty, ashen faces. “You all think you’ve got this figured out. I can tell you, you’re going to be surprised by how violent the crowds will be. You’re going to lose, you’re all going to die.”
Our family room became completely silent, every eye is locked on Tony.
“Maybe I can help you. I have access to a lot of construction people, they can be here tomorrow. Their bodies and equipment can finish your shelter in less than a third of the time you’re currently looking at. We have people experienced in war and weapons. I have employees who are ex-military, many were Special Forces. They have the experience to improve the defenses. We can hide the solar panels in the woods and run their lines underground making them very hard to find. I think that by merging our families we’ll have the numbers to hold off any swarm of people. Plus we’ll be able to finish the shelter and improve it much quicker than you can without us.”
Flo asked, “Tony, what do you want for the help you’re offering?”
Tony smiled at Flo, “That’s the easiest one to answer. All I want is to expand the shelter so my family and a few close friends can join you. We’ll build homes on land I own that border your farms and we’ll connect our homes to the shelter. I want a ticket on the ark.”
Randy smiles, saying, “So you own the land behind my farm. You’re the mysterious company that refused to sell the land.”
Tony smiles, “Yes, that’s my land. I held on to it and other patches as a just in case.”
Nancy says, “We’re really not any different than you, we all want the same things. When you get to know us better, you’ll see we’re the same as you. We want our family and friends to be safe. We want our children to grow up in a safe world. We hope they find people they love, they have a happy marriage giving us grandchildren. We don’t want our family ever to have to go to bed hungry or afraid. Isn’t this what all of you want? Are we so different?”
Most of our neighbors smile in agreement with Nancy.
Tony says, “My worry is when the shit hits the fan, and the people in Nashville realize there’s not going to be any more food delivered they are going to look for any place there could be food. Farms are going to be a prime target. They’re going to swarm over the land like locust stripping the land clean of everything edible. They’re going to head for the farms, which is here. If the country is going to pull itself together, it’ll do so by first feeding the people. The only way to feed the country’s people is by protecting and expanding the family-owned farms so that they can provide food for the hungry. The large corporate farms are going to have their own issues since most large companies are going to collapse. The workers on those farms will most likely try to take over the land. Their issues are going to be similar to ours, fuel to run their equipment, manpower to protect them and work the fields. Of course, many of them are tens of thousands of acres so they are most likely going to break up into smaller farms. I can provide us additional bodies to work the farm and provide security. I have access to certain resources which might be the difference between survival and failure.”
Randy says under his breath, “I take it failure results in our deaths.”
Tony takes a minute looking around the room before he replies, “Yes it does. Failure means our death and the death of the American dream. If we fail, the country fails and the last hope of freedom in the world will die with us. We’re all up to date
with the news. We all know we’re on the verge of the collapse of the country and possibly another world war. When Russia moves into Europe and China absorbs Asia no one will be left in the world to resist them. We as a country are failing, we’re falling apart. No one can save us. We elected an inexperienced senator as President, one who grew up hating everything we stand for. He was raised by a communist and he sat in a church for twenty years listening to a pastor who screamed his hatred of white people and America. He thinks the world can be what he says it is, he thinks if he says something then it will happen. Everyone with half a brain knows he got elected because of his skin color. He made the inner city and minorities worse off than they were before he got elected and they still love him. They think he’s their Messiah. He laid the foundation that destroyed America. Every time action was called for, he sat on his hands. He added more to our debt than all of the previous presidents combined. He sowed the seeds of our destruction. When he said he was going to transform the country, none of us knew what he meant. On the plus side, he’s the only politician that kept his pre-election promises.”
Paul says, “What about Bush, he got us into a war in Iraq for pure bullshit, we spent over $400 billion and threw away how many lives for a war over WMDs which weren’t there. His tax cuts took much-needed money away from the government pushing us into the recession we’re in. I think that Bush laid the foundation for the problems we’re in now.”
Matt responds, “Paul, do you really believe that?”
“Yes, I do.”
“We can agree to disagree.”
Fred says, “I think we need to return to the main topic. Tony, I think most of us agree with you on the current situation. None of us thought about what the future held outside of our group. Speaking for me, I agree with you that if the farms fail, the country fails. I’m sure we’re going to vote you into our little club. I for one would like to know more about the people you plan to bring with you.”
As Tony refills his coffee cup, he turns to face me winking. “Fred, I’ll be happy to supply the group with a list of names and their backgrounds. None of them is what you would call typical gangsters, those kinds of people are most likely going to be the ones we’re going to have to kill to hold the farms. As a quick summary, it’s going to be me, Nancy, our two children, Nancy’s younger brother and his wife with their three children. My security team is made up of eight ex-military people, all experts, and with hands-on experience in defending positions. I also have a doctor and his wife, a midwife, and two nurses on my payroll plus a couple of teachers which we’re going to need if things completely fall apart.”
When the group heard Tony say, doctor and nurses, everyone nods in agreement. All of us were worried about not having a doctor. With the country’s logistical infrastructure falling apart, we worried some of us might die without proper medical support. People stand to refill their coffee cups or get another beer. Tony and Nancy work the room like the experts they are. The evening draws to a close at 10:30 when everyone except for Tony and Nancy has gone home. Tony refills his cup of coffee, “Jay, how do you think it went?”
Smiling, I pat Tony on the back, “I think it went very well. I don’t see any problems. They’ll all let me know their thoughts in the morning. As soon as I hear from them, I’ll contact you. If we assume the answer is yes, when can you have construction people start working on the shelter?”
“24 hours after you call me. I think we’re going to have to hurry. I’m concerned that tomorrow’s unemployment announcement is going to be a shocker to the country.”
“I agree. I hope the government releases the real numbers this time. Remember during the lead-up to the 2012 election when the Department of Labor released great job numbers which turned out to be false?”
“Yeah and no one paid by losing their job.”
“Speaking of jobs, if everything collapses, how are you going to earn?”
“Don’t worry about us. We’ve prepared for retirement. I didn’t think it would come so quickly, but shit happens. We’ll be fine. I make my living by providing people with what they want. People are always going to want things. It may be food, it may be weapons, it may be medicine. Everyone is going to want things and my job will always be here because of that.”
“OK listen, we hate to throw you out, but we’ve got to get up very early tomorrow. Farm work is never finished. There’s so much to do with the shelter and other preparations we wake up tired.”
“No sweat. Jay, no matter how the vote goes thank you. By the way, how goes the bank situation?”
“The banks promised to start repaying us within 72 hours. All we can do is keep our fingers crossed.”
Smiling, Tony pats my back saying, “Keep your head up, I think they’ll repay all of your money, maybe even with interest. It's crazy how these hackers can steal people’s money without them or the banks knowing it happened until it’s too late.” Tony winks while putting his arm around Nancy’s waist, “Honey, I think it’s time for us to go, these poor people need their rest.”
Nancy and Lacy hug each other goodbye. Nancy says, “Lacy, call me tomorrow, let’s have lunch soon while we can still enjoy it.”
“That sounds good. I have to be in town in a few days to get my hair done.”
“You’re right, we have our appointments at the same time. Let’s meet early for lunch and cocktails.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Lacy and I clean up saying, “Honey, do you think everyone liked Tony and Nancy?”
“Lace, yes, I think everything went very well. My only concern is will we have enough time to finish the shelter before it’s too late.”
Lacy pauses while placing the dishes in the dishwasher asking, “What are we going to do if we run out of time?”
I look into her eyes and lowering my voice, I respond, “We pray and we do whatever we have to in order to live.”
Chapter 15
We wake early the next morning to the news reporters all worried about the newly released unemployment numbers. Lacy and I have breakfast while watching the Fox morning news. Looking at Lacy, “Crap, someone made a mistake, they just announced numbers which sound like they’re the real numbers.”
“Honey, can the numbers be real? 946,000 new claims in the past week? My God, that’s worse than the numbers in the 2008 crash. The Department of Labor said the revised unemployment rate is 11%.”
“I think the numbers of claims are correct, but not the percentage. My gut says the percentage is closer to 20%. The Department of Labor doesn’t count those who dropped out of the workforce nor do they count anyone who used up their benefits. If you’re unemployed for 27 weeks and used all of your unemployment benefits, you’re no longer counted even though you’re still without a job. Since they only count people receiving benefits the real numbers are much higher. If they’re reporting 11%, think about how many people they’re not counting. Call them the ‘hidden unemployed.’ Most of our economy is driven by consumer spending and without that spending the crash is going to be deeper and longer lasting than anything we’ve seen since the great depression. Even then we didn’t also have to face the external forces dumping our dollar, crashing our economy. We have a president who thinks the only way to get us out of a recession is through government spending. The ‘smartest man’ to ever sit in the big chair doesn’t understand how the economy works. He’s never managed anything in his life. The 29 depression was made worse and extended because of the government’s spending.”
“A couple more weeks of numbers like this and no one will have any confidence in the economy. When people lose confidence in the economy, they don’t spend and when they stop spending more people lose their jobs making the problem worse. It’s a never ending cycle, like a snake eating itself. More than 50% of the country is dependent on government assistance which is stopping. There aren’t any private industry jobs opening to hire these people, what are they going to do to put food on their table?”
We’re interr
upted by the Secretary of the Department of Labor making an announcement, saying, “My fellow Americans, we know that many of you are concerned with the new unemployment numbers. I want to assure you that the jump in the weekly unemployment numbers was expected. It’s a seasonal blip, it's nothing to be concerned about. We are moving ahead with President Obama’s announced immigration program. We believe increasing the number of immigrates will open new jobs for Americans, improving our overall economy. These new immigrates will pay much-needed income taxes. They will absorb the lower tier jobs that the average American doesn’t want to do. Bringing these new people into our hearts will help all of us. I’ve heard the phony complaint that Fox News broadcasts, that opening the borders to additional immigration is taking jobs away from Americans. This simply isn’t true. Most Americans won’t take entry level jobs, jobs that are critical to keeping our economy moving. We’re all aware of the current financial pressures on the government. China’s demand for immediate repayment is delaying our payments, but this too will improve with the addition of millions of new workers paying taxes and social security into the system.”
