by Pete Thorsen
The End of America
Pete Thorsen
Released on Kindle & in Print
June 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher/author, except that brief selections may be quoted or copied for non-profit use without permission, provided that full credit is given. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is entirely accidental.
Five complete early stories from one of America’s most popular apocalyptic writers.
An Arizona Haven is a story of how a will to overcome obstacles and some common sense can mean all the difference in your very survival in this case after an EMP has shut down the whole power grid.
Dystopia USA is the tale of a possible very dark future in the great United States of America.
The Zombie Plague is a story of a plague that is affecting the whole world and changing people drastically into something that is not quite human.
Living Through the Collapse is about the economic collapse of the economy of the USA as lived through by a family in rural Minnesota.
Polar Shift is about two good friends and their lives before and after a major catastrophic event that changes the whole world and causes chaos.
An Arizona
Haven
By
Pete Thorsen
Formerly Published under
The Pen Name
Jack Forester
Originally Released
On Kindle January 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except that brief selections may be quoted or copied for non-profit use without permission, provided that full credit is given. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is entirely accidental.
Day One
Don Wilson was at the front counter of the farm supply store when the lights went out. He walked the short distance to the front door of the store and looked outside. It was a typical nice sunny day here in Arizona but Don never noticed that this time when he looked out. He was instead looking at all the cars stopped on the highway out front with the drivers just now starting to exit their vehicles. The cars were not bumper to bumper but instead just stopped at random.
He then looked at his cell phone but it appeared to be dead. Next he checked the store phone but it was also dead even though it had a UPS power supply. Then he noticed the emergency lights were not on either. Well Arizona is not a bad place to be when an EMP or solar flare or whatever this is happens he thought.
A lot better than northern Montana or some other place that got very cold in the winter. He turned back in to the store and yelled out “The store will be closing now due to the power outage. Everyone please make your way to the front of store. We will not be able to ring any sales so please just leave anything you wanted to purchase and come back another time. Thank you.”
Customers were making their way out the front doors. Don gave several clerks flashlights from the displays near the checkouts and told them to check and make sure all the customers were out of the store and then lock up the back.
A couple customers came back in the store and asked to use the phone because their car would not start and their cell phones were dead. Don explained that the store phone was also out. After the clerks had locked the back up Don assembled the group of clerks near the front windows where there was some light and addressed them all.
“When you try to leave you will very likely find that your cars will not start. You will have to make your own way back to your homes on foot. Before you go I want all of you to take a flashlight, as many water bottles or as much soda as you want to carry with you, and some of whatever food we have. I don’t think the power is going to come back on. Maybe ever.
Use as many bags as you want but I would suggest double or triple bagging these supplies. If there is something else you would like to take with you can feel free to do so. Be wise in what you take because I know some of you live some distance away. You may wish to travel together as far as possible for safety as there will be no police anymore. Please try to grab what you want quickly so you can get home while it’s still light and before the bad guys come out. Good luck everyone.”
They all milled around talking for a few minutes and a couple of them asked Don if he was serious about taking the stuff. Don assured them he was very serious but he wished they would hurry as time was a very precious commodity before everyone realized what was going on.
That was enough and all of them started running about gathering items to take with them. In five minutes or so they were all assembled in front again and Don grabbed a flashlight then he let them out the front door before he also stepped outside and relocked it.
Don headed directly to the small ‘family’ grocery store about two or three blocks away. He figured that the big stores would just shut down and not sell anything with the power out but the little store would still want to make money and might just remain open. When he got there he saw that indeed the door was open and a couple of clerks were standing by the front door.
He asked if he could buy a few things with cash and showed them his flashlight. They agreed but a clerk would have to accompany him in the store. So Don grabbed a cart and asked where the rice was. He put all the ten pound bags of rice they had in the cart and still added some two pounders also. Then he asked about soup and put a lot of canned soup in the cart along with a bunch of dried bullion.
Then on to the canned meat where he got quite a pile of small cans of chicken and a few tuna and beef. Then many cans of the cheap canned pasta varieties. Then paper plates and bowls, a box each of forks and spoons, a can opener, a cooking pot, instant coffee, a case each of a couple flavors of sports drinks, most of the granola and power bars they had, a good supply of toilet paper, several bottles of multi vitamins, soap, and toothpaste and tooth brushes.
At the counter he added a little gum and quite a bunch of cigarette lighters. He asked about matches and had a clerk run and get a bunch of what they had. It took some time for the clerks to add up all the stuff he had bought but they finally had a total and he paid with cash. Don was thankful that he always carried quite a bit of cash though in this case he would not have hesitated to take cash from the store he worked at. He told them he would be taking the cart with him but promised to return it in a half hour or so.
Don pushed the cart that was heaped way up back to the farm store where he worked and unloaded it in a back room. Then returned the cart back to the grocery store where he thanked them for letting him use it. Back at the farm store again, Don brought inside all the full twenty pound propane tanks that were stored outside in a cage. Then while it was still light he found the hose kits and a propane camp stove and propane lantern and taking everything to the back room he had put the food in he put just a one pound propane tank on the lantern and started it so he plenty of light and then hooked up the camp stove to one of the twenty pound propane tanks.
He used the small propane bottle on the lantern so he could carry it around easy for plenty of light. He gathered a lot of things that would hold water and started filling them from the back room water spigot. Don knew the water would not keep running very long and wanted to stockpile as much as he could. He filled water containers for
a very long time until he had eight new thirty gallon trash cans full and many smaller containers also. By the time he was done filling all the containers the water had dropped quite a bit in pressure though it was still flowing a little.
The store had a small camping section where he had gotten the stove and lantern and he went back there and got an air mattress, a hand pump for it, and a sleeping bag. He brought that stuff to the back room he would be using as his new home. The room now had all of the food he had bought, his stove, and his sleeping stuff. The room had no windows and he could shut the door so no light would be seen from the front of the store to alert people that someone was living there.
The store had a large number of useful items, a lot of junk type food, and cases of bottled water. Plus there were two pop machines he had the keys for so he could easily get the soda out of them plus the cases of refills stored in back. By this time the sun was down and Don went out to his Suburban to get his gear he always kept in there.
There was a flat steel box that took up a lot of the floor space though only about six inches or so high. It had a locking drawer that he slid open after opening up the back door and unlocking it. The padded drawer contained his guns and a little ammo. There was plenty more ammo stacked on top in a crate also. Don transferred the guns, ammo, backpack, and other gear into the store and relocked his truck. He had many plans for tomorrow and made some supper using his new stove and after pumping up the air mattress he went to bed early.
Day Two
Donald Wilson did not really have a home. He worked for the large farm store company and was sent to open new stores when they were built. He trained all the employees and when the store manager was trained and arrived at the store Don would leave to go to the next new store. Sometimes he went to stores that were already open where the store manager had quit or had been fired and stayed until the new store manager showed up. He over saw the building and stocking of the new stores and the entire clerk training before it opened.
The main company trained the new store managers at a single location and sent them where they were needed. Don stayed at most locations for around six months before he was sent elsewhere. From as little as one month to the longest being nine months in the same location. So he always only rented a small temporary apartment. Sometimes just an extended stay motel was where he stayed. He always drove to his new jobs so he had his own truck and gear with him.
He actually owned very little but what he had was either high quality or easily replaceable. Don had just turned thirty five and had no girl friend because he never stayed in one place long enough to find one. Mostly the only people he had contact with were the employees at the stores he worked at. He had few friends for the same reason.
He had some family but saw them very seldom though he did talk on the phone with them on a regular basis. His life was quite unique to say the least but it was fine with him. He got to see many different areas of the United States and see many different lifestyles also.
Don had went through the company manager training program and had his own store for about four years when he told his district manager that he was thinking of quitting his job. His boss asked why because his store was doing great. Don told him that was the problem because he needed more of a challenge and his boss came up with the idea of shipping Don around the country to new stores so they could get them up and be running fine before being turned over to new untried managers.
The idea went up the ladder and was approved and had worked out great for the company. Don now made substantially more money plus they paid for his apartments he rented and paid mileage when traveling between stores. He had a bunch of money in the bank that was very likely worthless now but he also had some silver and gold stashed in his truck. Last night he had just left the precious metals in the truck because it was fairly well hidden and his truck was nothing special and not all that new either. Plus now there were hundreds of cars and trucks sitting everywhere since they no longer would run.
In the morning with the new day starting Don was up early as was his custom and had his breakfast before starting his project for this morning. The store had some tools for company use and one of them was a twelve volt cordless drill. It was a good one but only had one battery which was seldom charged up because they used it only once and awhile.
Don found an extension cord and cut the ends off. He put the ends of the wire over the drill battery contacts and forced the battery back into the drill. He took a twelve volt light bulb and touched the other ends of the wires to it and it lighted the bulb so he knew it was making contact. The drill still worked normal but Don could tell the battery was weak.
He next carried the drill with the wires dragging behind over to where the store had its new car batteries. He held the ends of the wires against the posts on a car battery and tried the drill. Now it seemed to have plenty of power! After seeing that his plan would indeed work he started to get the rest of the stuff together but first he taped the wire securely to the drill battery so it would not pull out.
Then he put clamps on the ends of the wire so it could be attached to the car battery and make good contact. Stored outside were many livestock panels, gates, dog kennel sections, and many kinds of fencing wire. Don got a couple drill bits and some heavy screws and went outside. After doing a couple measurements he thought the six foot high by eight foot long dog kennel panels would work the best and carried two of them over to the store front.
After retrieving the drill and a car battery he drilled holes through the bars on the dog panels and screwed them securely over the front windows of the store with livestock panels under them. The livestock panels were held securely by the screwed on dog panels and together they were fairly formidable. He did the same with a tube gate over the front doors of the store. Standing back he thought the front was fairly secure now. Far from perfect but way better than just the glass doors and windows. The glass could still be easily broken but that was all. Anyone would have a very tough time getting inside now.
Done in the front Don hauled the large battery and the ‘cordless’ drill back inside using the back door. There would be no using the blocked front door anymore. He next reinforced the two large receiving doors and the small back door to make them much more secure but the small door he left so it could still be opened for his use.
Then he put a lot of tape on the front windows and glass front doors so if someone did break them the glass would stay together pretty good. His work done he locked the back door and left to pick up a few more groceries if the small store was open again today.
Arriving at the store it was open and he only bought a few things that would make living in the back room a little more bearable. Dropping the food and other items at his ‘new’ home he strapped on a pistol and grabbing a bottle of water left to walk the about three miles to his old apartment to get some of the items he had there. He liked the fact that in Arizona carrying a pistol was no big deal and was often seen. Any citizen could carry concealed or openly without a permit.
There were several people out walking around because still no vehicles were running that Don had seen so far. He figured at some point people would likely get some older vehicles running and maybe some motorcycles and such also but for now they were just walking or riding bicycles. His walk back home was uneventful and he was soon packing many things into his spare backpack he kept there.
While in the apartment he emptied the contents of his refrigerator into the outside dumpster after making himself a large lunch and after a quick look around again to make sure he had not forgotten anything he shouldered the pack and headed back to the store that was his new home.
He talked to a few people on the way back and of course no one knew what had happened or when things would get back to normal. Little did they know that chances were that it would never get ‘back to normal’. Don had not seen any jets or any aircraft fly over which he thought was a very bad sign because it must be at least a nationwide catastrophe.
Inside he took off his pack and added the little bit of food he brought to the big stack already there. He had brought some clothes and some cash that he kept at home and another pistol. It was a fairly heavy and very full pack that he emptied. He spent some time working in the room with the light from the lantern that he always had to use because it would be total darkness in there otherwise.
There were a couple of unused displays that had shelves that he used to arrange his food supplies. Most of the water he had was in the larger receiving area but he had moved several cases of bottled water into his room along with all the extra soda for the machines near the front door. Tomorrow he would open both machines and take out all the sodas that were inside. He had already brought a bunch of the snack food from the front of the store to his room also. After supper Don went to bed and wondered what tomorrow would bring.
Day Three
After a light breakfast Don added a couple heavy brackets to the door of his hideout room so at night he could bar the door to prevent anyone from entering while he was asleep. He assumed he would wake up if anyone broke in but if not this would at least keep him safe for a few more minutes. This room also had a key lock on it but a bar on the door was way more secure.
