by Mark Goodwin
American Reset
Book Three of The Economic Collapse Chronicles
Mark Goodwin
Copyright © 2014 Goodwin America Corp.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author, except by a reviewer who may quote short passages in a review.
Unless otherwise noted, all scripture is from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
ISBN: 1495236641
ISBN-13: 978-1495236648
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
-John 15:5
I would like to thank Jesus Christ for making me the person I am today.
Thanks to Jeff and Dutch for sharing their military knowledge and for helping the book to be more technically accurate in the area of weapons and tactics.
Thanks to my wife and family for their prayers and support in the good times and the bad.
Thanks to John Aman and Catherine Goodwin for editing.
Foreword
American Reset is a work of fiction, but the threats that materialize in the book are real. Many of the numbers stated in the book are forward projections made by the author and based on real numbers.
American Reset looks at the current political and financial problems our country is facing and simply does the math. Plan accordingly.
Technical information in the book is included for educational purposes and to convey realism. The author shall not have liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused, or allegedly caused, directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book.
For more information on preparing for a financial meltdown or other natural or man-made disasters, visit the author’s website at www.PrepperRecon.com.
Except for a few people and one cat whose real names were used with permission, all of the characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, places or events are entirely coincidental.
Prologue
“See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her—but now murderers! Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water. Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow's case does not come before them. Therefore the Lord, the LORD Almighty, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: ‘Ah, I will get relief from my foes and avenge myself on my enemies. I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities. I will restore your judges as in days of old, your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.’ Zion will be redeemed with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness. But rebels and sinners will both be broken, and those who forsake the LORD will perish.”
-Isaiah 1:21-28
Over the past six months, the political and economic landscape of the United States changed dramatically. Decades of deficit spending caught up with the American economy and the bill finally came due. Monetary creation by the Federal Reserve reached its limit when confidence in the US dollar hit a wall. High inflation threatened to jump to hyperinflation if the American central bank raised the rate of increase for the money supply just one more time.
Rising interest rates demanded that a growing percentage of the federal budget be allocated to servicing the national debt. As lenders became aware of the domino effect that rising rates were having on America’s ability to pay her debts, the rates on US debt went parabolic and new lenders became scarce. The International Monetary Fund stepped in to stem the crisis in hopes of delaying a global economic meltdown.
The first crack in the veneer appeared just weeks prior to the last election. Despite the best efforts from Washington and the IMF, a severe fiscal shortfall left Electronic Benefit Transfer cards underfunded. The EBT card system facilitated access to SNAP benefits for millions of Americans each month. Many Americans were totally dependent on the benefits for food. When the cards were funded at fifty percent of their normal payments, massive rioting overtook large cities throughout the country.
Paul Randall ran as an independent candidate in the last election. His platform was to get America back on a sustainable path by drastically reducing welfare and warfare spending and adhering to the founding principles in the Constitution. Randall won the popular vote and polled the most electoral votes, but none of the three candidates received the required 270 electoral votes to win via the Electoral College. Rather than honor the will of the people, Congress elected Democratic presidential candidate Anthony Howe who swore to ban all semi-automatic firearms through executive order.
Matt and Karen Bair were preppers prior to the riots, but they were not prepared for the level of chaos spreading around the US. They made a hard decision to sell their home for what they could get and move to the mountains of Kentucky to be near Matt’s cousin, Adam. They settled on a small farm just across the woods from Adam’s homestead near London, Kentucky.
Days after Anthony Howe’s inauguration, skyrocketing interest rates triggered a crisis in the $700 trillion dollar, interest-rate-derivatives market. Thanks to the 2005 bankruptcy reform, holders of derivatives were assigned super priority over bank depositors who were considered unsecured creditors. The bank accounts of millions of Americans were wiped clean by the crisis. An unprecedented amount of new money was created so the FDIC could reimburse depositors for their losses. Before the money could be credited to the depositor’s accounts, the IMF demanded a ninety percent bail-in of all deposits over $5,000 in order to make loans to keep the Federal government afloat.
Soon, the dollar became utterly worthless. People who listened to the warnings of Paul Randall during his campaign diversified their wealth into tangible assets that could be exchanged in barter networks. Gold, silver, ammunition, hygiene products and even coffee became the currencies of choice.
A new wave of riots broke out after the collapse of the currency which dwarfed the EBT riots. Municipal governments in large cities were bankrupt and unable to compensate their police forces. Law-abiding officers who had no underhanded means of supplementing their incomes left police forces en masse. President Howe was quick to use the opportunity to enact martial law. He used the new Federal Ration Notes as currency to keep and recruit Federal troops for his totalitarian police state.
Many state governors rallied behind Paul Randall to resist martial law and President Anthony Howe’s gun and resource confiscation objectives. Those states banded together to form the American Coalition States. The Coalition consisted of several states and territories in the northwest, south and Texas. The Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Eastern Washington, Eastern Oregon and Northern Colorado made up the Northwest Coalition. Kentucky, Tennessee and the Carolinas made up the Southern Coalition. At first, the conflict over the division was rhetorical. But the Coalition eventually used military force to evict all Federal agencies from inside their borders.
The president initiated the first act of violence against the Coalition by attacking the compound of Pastor John Robinson who had been very outspoken against Howe during the campaign. Howe underestimated the organization and readiness of the compound at Robinson’s Young Fi
eld and the Federal forces suffered a humiliating defeat.
Howe ramped up his campaign of aggression by sending DHS enforcers to all neutral states. West Virginia was one of the first neutral states to be locked down. West-Virginian patriots fled from the oppression and poured into Eastern Kentucky as refugees. Matt and Karen took in a young couple from West Virginia, Justin Clemens and his wife, Rene.
Once the neutral states were well occupied, President Howe turned his attention towards Kentucky. Matt Bair and his cousin, Adam Bair, were part of the Eastern Kentucky Liberty Militia. Their mission was to perform raids on federal convoys moving supplies into Kentucky. In one such raid, just outside of Pikeville, Kentucky, the militia was counter-ambushed by a barrage of federal forces. Wesley Bair, Adam’s brother, was killed in the failed raid along with several other members of the militia. Matt Bair was captured and imprisoned in a DHS work camp. Adam escaped capture by moving through the woods and away from the federal soldiers. Justin Clemens and Gary Brewer also evaded the enemy in the raid. They were cut off from Adam and theother survivors and had to make their way back to the London area.
CHAPTER 1
“Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings from the wicked who assail me, from my mortal enemies who surround me. They close up their callous hearts, and their mouths speak with arrogance. They have tracked me down, they now surround me, with eyes alert, to throw me to the ground. They are like a lion hungry for prey, like a great lion crouching in cover. Rise up, O LORD, confront them, bring them down; rescue me from the wicked by your sword. O LORD, by your hand save me from such men, from men of this world whose reward is in this life.”
-Psalm 17:8-14
Matt lay in his cell on the cold steel floor of the shipping container. As tired as he was, he couldn’t sleep. He tried to discern his location by listening to the sounds from outside the container. He could hear indiscernible voices. “I wish I could tell what they’re saying.”
Matt sniffed the water in the bucket. “It smells like sulfur. It’s probably well water. I’ll be dead if I don’t drink it.”
Matt cupped his hands and drank the water. His stomach was growling. He hadn’t eaten since before the ambush, the day before.
“There is no way to know what time it is.” Matt spoke out loud just to break the silence.
He could tell the light coming through the cracks of the container door was natural light. The light moved quite a bit since he had been watching. It must be well after noon. He felt like he’d been in there for more than a day.
The door swung open and daylight flooded in. Matt turned away and hid his eyes. He had been in complete darkness except for the light coming through the cracks. His eyes were adjusted to the pitch-black interior of the shipping container.
A voice came from someone Matt couldn’t see because of the blinding light. “Breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
“Where am I?” Matt asked the voice.
“Hell.” The voice laughed. The door to the container was shut again and the blackness returned.
Matt groped around to find his bearings. The moment of bright light had blinded him to the darkness again. A few minutes later, Matt’s eyes adjusted well enough to see the bowl the man brought in. Matt sniffed the bowl. “Oatmeal.”
There were no utensils so Matt turned the bowl up to sip out the cold porridge. No sugar or salt. Hunger is the best seasoning of all. Matt finished the bowl and licked it clean.
Matt thought about his wife. Karen must be worried sick.
He thought about the rest of the team. He wondered who made it and who didn’t. The only person he knew for sure that survived was himself. The gruel had quelled his hunger pains for the time being and sleep overtook him.
CHAPTER 2
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
-Proverbs 3:5-6
Adam Bair started out on his long journey home. This trek would have been hard enough, but he had the grief of his brother’s death that weighed on him like a battleship anchor. He would have to mourn Wesley’s demise later. For now, he needed to get home to his wife and daughters. The reverse ambush scattered the entire team. Adam was lost in the woods. He didn’t know where he was and he knew even less about the location of his cousin, Matt, and the rest of the team.
He crossed a small creek. He had no means of purifying the water, so he dug a gypsy well about two feet away from the stream. A gypsy well was simply a hole dug near a stream or river. The water would push through the earth between the hole and the stream. This layer of earth would filter out most pathogens.
He whispered to himself, “This water looks clean, but who knows what could have died in it, two miles upstream.” The hole slowly filled with water. Adam cupped his hands and drank as much as he could. He then continued along the edge of the tree line.
About a mile up the path, he found a blackberry bush. He looked at the small undeveloped berries. “Too green.” The bitter taste was one thing, but getting stomach cramps or diarrhea was something Adam couldn’t afford.
Several miles along his hike towards the Kentucky-Virginia border, Adam ran into Fishtrap Lake and followed the shore east. Eventually, the lake tailed out into Levisa Fork which was a river that ran south. The recent rains swelled the river to nearly fifty feet across with rapid currents.
“I’ll just have to walk until I find a bridge or better place to cross. This ain’t happenin’ here.” Adam followed the bridge around for several miles. He finally came upon Levisa Road which had a bridge and took him over the river. The road should lead to a checkpoint if I follow it south, he thought.
Levisa Road followed the twisting and turning course of the river. Adam stayed on the western side of the road so he could flee to the tree line if he spotted an enemy vehicle. If he needed to find cover on the river side of the road, he could be forced into the sweeping current of the river. He heard a vehicle coming in his direction. Adam quickly jumped into the veil of the brush. He drew his pistol and laid still as the pickup truck drove past him. The truck had several armed men in the bed.
“Militia,” he whispered to himself. He could have yelled out for a ride to the checkpoint, but it didn’t seem wise. A startled fellow militia member might shoot first and ask questions later. Adam listened for more vehicles that may have been traveling with the first truck before exiting the concealment of the roadside brush. It was certainly a positive sign. The men must have been traveling to the checkpoint. That means we’re still in control of it, he thought.
Adam finally arrived at the militia camp. There was no sentry posted at the rear of the camp. “That’s not good,” he muttered. The last thing he wanted to do was enter the camp on foot and unannounced. He spotted two militia men walking toward their tent, still several hundred feet away. He yelled and waved his hands in the air. Adam wanted to make sure they had plenty of time to identify that he was not a threat before approaching.
“Hey fellas!” Adam yelled out.
One of the men said something on his radio and the other thumbed off the safety of his AR-15. Adam kept his hands in the air as he drew near.
“How you doin’, bud?” one of the militia men asked.
“I’m good, I need to speak with whoever is in charge,” Adam stated politely.
“Alright, are you armed?” the man quizzed.
“I have my pistol in my back waist,” Adam confessed.
“Would you mind if we hold on to that until we can verify who you are?” the man inquired.
“I’m fine with that.” Adam slowly passed the weapon to the man he was speaking with.
“What brings you here on this fine day?” the man asked curiously.
“I’m with the Eastern Kentucky Liberty Militia. We had an operation near Pikeville yesterday. I think it was a trap. We were overrun by Federal troops,” Adam explained.
“We heard about tha
t. How did you end up here?” the man asked.
“I walked,” Adam replied.
“Long walk.” The man picked up the radio and said, “Stan, we got a fella here, says he was in the fireworks yesterday, over by Raccoon Road.”
“What’s his name and what’s he look like?” the radio came back.
“Lieutenant Adam Bair,” Adam said when the man looked at him.
The man relayed Adam’s reply and gave a short physical description of Adam.
Stan radioed back, “Hang tight for a minute. I’ll call that in and see if he checks out.”
“I’m Charlie, by the way, and this here is Pete,” the man said.
Pete nodded, but didn’t say anything. Adam could tell he was still keeping his guard up. That’s fine. He probably should, Adam thought.
Minutes later, Stan called back. “That’s him. Get him something to eat and bring him on up to the checkpoint.”
Charlie handed the pistol back to Adam. “Thanks,” Adam exhaled as he tucked the pistol back where it had been.
They stopped by the chow tent and grabbed Adam a bottle of water and an MRE, then continued toward the checkpoint.
“You all by yourself out here?” Charlie asked.
“We split up when we got hit,” Adam said. “My brother and another guy died in the operation. I don’t know who else may have survived. It was a real mess.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Charlie said. “About your brother, I mean.”
“Thank you,” Adam said as he tore into the MRE. He opened the M&Ms and began pouring them into his mouth as they walked. Adam was famished.
