by Pete Thorsen
When first run on the banks was seen on the news Del and Eve had already took their money out of their banks (or most of their money). They had talked the night before and both had called in sick and Del had packed all his stuff and met Eve at her place so they then went to the bank as soon as it opened that morning.
They normally used different branches but both had the same bank so it worked out good in this case. Once they had their money it was a short trip back to Eve’s apartment to get her clothes and one quite heavy metal box (at this point Del’s little car was packed) and they took off west out of Chicago. They were both proud of the fact that they got out without trouble because they thought it would only be a day or maybe two before everything broke down. They drove directly to Davenport, Iowa to Del’s secret.
Arriving in mid afternoon Del drove right to a storage facility and parked just to the side of a large door with a massive padlock which he unlocked and then opened the big door. Going inside he drove out a minute later with a Dodge diesel four wheel drive pickup pulling a covered trailer. He stopped and shut the truck off and removing a stack of new empty plastic tote boxes they filled the totes with all their belongings.
Each saved out a few items that they threw together into one tote so if they stopped at a motel they only had to bring in one tote with the stuff they needed for over night. Everything went quickly as they had discussed their plans at length and had been pretty thorough. Dell drove his now empty little car into the storage garage where the truck had been, closed the door, locked it and they left in his truck pulling the trailer. They continued west but before leaving town Del stopped at another storage facility and opened up a smaller storage room.
Eve looked at him and he said nothing just shrugged his shoulders. He had backed the trailer up close to the door and they loaded the pails and tote boxes they found inside the room into the trailer. This time Del left the room unlocked and put the heavy padlock on the trailer door. Then they headed out of town going west on Interstate Eighty.
Del drove to Adair, Iowa and pulled off and filled the tank on the truck. Then they went to a Super Eight motel and got a double room. They were not intimate but it suited them both to get a room with two beds. After getting a room they went out and walked to the local Happy Chef restaurant for supper. Then back to the motel where Del carried in the one shared tote.
They switched on the TV and Del fired up his laptop using the free wireless connection. That night they learned about the Executive Order for capital controls on the banks and they realized they had got their money out just in time. Del and Eve agreed that things would unravel quickly now. Del thought it would hold together long enough for them to get to their destination. At least he hoped so.
As they drove out of town the next morning Del noticed the gas price had went up by a dollar over night, a trend he expected to continue. His diesel pickup had an aftermarket gas tank that held over forty gallons plus he had a skinny across-the-bed fuel transfer tank in the front of the box that held another fifty gallons. He knew he had plenty to reach their destination but would fill up a couple times today if possible. Dollar money would be worth nothing in just a few days.
They continued west on I80 into Nebraska and about halfway through the state they turned off the interstate on to smaller highways to go south. Del did fill the truck before leaving the interstate and they ate lunch at a café there. They now went through several small towns and Del made a couple stops.
At a gun shop he bought a bunch of ammo even for guns he did not own. And they found a coin shop and between Del and Eve they bought the place out. They turned west again when they got to Interstate 70 but stayed on it only for a short time before again taking smaller highways going south and west.
They made several stops again in small towns they drove through buying more silver and a small amount of gold plus more ammunition. When they got to the first town in Colorado they stopped at a small old looking motel and got another double room and just caught the café before it closed for the night.
Eve was worried about the truck and trailer but Del said he thought it would be fine. He reminded her they were a long way from Chicago now and much safer out here in this tiny little town where they were staying. There was no internet service so they just watched the news channels before going to bed.
The next morning showed that Del was correct as the truck and trailer were fine. They had a very good breakfast in the little café and went back on the road again always going west. They went south and west most of the day and Del filled the truck for the last time in Del Norte, Colorado. Even though it was early they enjoyed a leisurely supper at a café before leaving town and driving to Del’s sister’s place a few miles away.
Del and his sister (Deb) talked often and she had just about begged him to leave Chicago and come stay at her place. Deb and her husband had bought a place, kind of a small farm/ranch in the ‘sticks’. Deb’s husband had died in Afghanistan when in the Army and now Deb lived there all alone. She was keeping up but could sure use some help at her place and she was worried about Del living in Chicago ever since he had moved there. When Deb heard about Del bringing Eve, she could not have been happier. She loved her brother but it would be nice to have another woman to talk to.
Deb ran out to meet them when they got to her house. Once they got out of the truck Deb hugged her brother and hugged Eve just as much. Deb almost insisted they eat supper and was disappointed to learn they had eaten in town. She brought them in the house and showed them their room and seeing the expression on their faces Deb stopped for a minute.
Then she caught on all by herself and showed them the other bedroom also. The girls started talking so Del just went out and backed the truck up closer to the house and started bringing in their totes of clothes and personal items. He also brought in the heavy metal box that belonged to Eve that was full of silver and gold then he wheeled in the small safe that he had from his apartment that also was full of gold and silver.
He had several guns and brought them in out of the heavy metal work box that he had them locked inside that was mounted in his truck. Two of the guns he put in Eve’s room with some ammunition also. Then getting out his laptop he tried to get on using Deb’s wifi and found out she did not have it password protected which out here he could understand.
He checked the regular news sites that he always did and things had really been going down hill. It had been dark for an hour or two back east at this point and there were riots in many of the large cities back there. They had left at the right time. They had a safe trip and had even enjoyed it. But fuel was much higher by the time they got to the little town near here where Del had topped off the tank. He would not be surprised if it was fifty dollars a gallon in a day or two. Very soon money would have no value.
Del shut down his computer and found the girls in the kitchen. He turned to Deb and said “In the morning we will go to town and buy some stuff. Could you make a list of things you need here on the farm?”
“I don’t really need anything right now. I stocked up a few days ago like you suggested.”
“Let me rephrase that. Make a list of items that you would normally be buying during the next month or two or even in the next three.”
“I can but why would we want to buy stuff way ahead like that?”
“Because I think we could still buy it tomorrow but in a few days money will be completely useless. In a week it will be a whole different world and it will become a very dark ugly world. The dollar has collapsed. No more shipments will be coming from any other country for a long time. All commerce in the United States will stall at least for awhile. Quite possibly there will be no food or fuel shipments at all. Maybe no shipments of any kind. I would guess that the electric power would likely stop also at some point.”
“All that can’t happen. The government won’t allow it to happen. If there was no food and no power in the cities countless people would die. No way would they let that happen. No way at all.�
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“I freely admit I could be way wrong. But why don’t you just humor me and make a list of things you would need in the future. I’ll buy them and if I’m wrong it won’t hurt anything as you will use the stuff anyway.”
“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to get some stuff as like you say we’ll need it sooner or later. Why do you hang around with this crazy guy, Eve?”
“Because I don’t think he’s crazy. On this I agree 100%. That’s why I’m here. We both knew that Chicago would be totally untenable. I am just so thankful to you for letting us stay out here with you.”
“I still think he’s crazy and he just talked you into believing him but I am so happy to have you both here. And believe me there is a lot of work to do and you may well regret ever setting foot on this place after I put you to work.”
“We are both anxious to do real work and to learn all we can about life here.”
“OK I’ll ride to town with you in the morning and we’ll buy out the town. And in the afternoon we can all get to work.”
They all sat in the kitchen and talked for a long while and finally they all went to their separate rooms and each had a good nights sleep.
Chapter Six
Deb was an early riser and the other two were up early also because they were still living on Chicago time. After breakfast and a look at Deb’s list it was decided to take her farm pickup and a small trailer she often used. They first went to the feed mill and Del doubled all the amounts on Deb’s list. That filled up the trailer and some was also put in the back of the pickup.
Then it was a stop at the hardware store where besides the couple things that Deb had left on her list, Del also bought several oil lamps and most of the lamp oil that was on the shelf. He also bought a 30 inch bow saw and several blades, a hand carpenter saw, a fair assortment of nails, a huge supply of garden seeds, some short pieces of three quarter inch iron pipe with some fittings, and of all things a bunch of mouse traps.
Then it was a stop at the grocery store where Del told Deb to buy a bunch of the things she normally liked to eat but no frozen foods. He went with a separate cart and bought a somewhat odd assortment of things besides food and Deb was surprised when they met back in the front of the store to see Del had two carts full to overflowing. Eve had gone with Deb and had filled her own cart with many things so Deb went back and got some more items also. Eve and Del split the very large bill but Deb saw that neither cared who paid more or less than the other.
Del then went back in and shortly came back with three forty pound bags of plain water softener salt. Remembering that Deb’s house used propane Del asked her how full her tank was. When he found out it was less than half and Windy’s Propane was right here in town he had her stop there to order a delivery.
When there he asked if they could set and a fill a second tank and him and Eve paid for the extra tank and for filling it. The dealer said they would have to wait to pay for topping off the original tank until they found out how much it took to fill it. He said they could pay the driver or they would send a bill.
Happy with the morning they all drove home and Del’s first chore was to unload all the feed he had bought. While he was doing that the girls carried in all the groceries. After lunch Del took Deb out to his trailer and showed her what was inside. She asked what was in all the pails and totes that filled the whole trailer.
Del told her it was almost all Long Term Storage food. It would all keep a long time but was enough to feed them for quite awhile. She just stared at it and shook her head. And told him again he was totally crazy. She reminded him this was a farm and she grew a lot of food here. But she said the big old house had plenty of storage space and she would show him where he could put it all. All three ended up carrying in the food from his trailer. After it was empty Deb showed him where he could park the trailer and his pickup that would be out of the way.
Then all three walked around the farm so Deb could show them all the chores that needed doing every day and showed them the huge garden that was just waiting for warmer weather before they planted. She showed them the chicken coop and how they had to collect eggs daily then on to her one cow that they watched her milk. Eve and Del agreed that was plenty to keep all of them busy.
During the afternoon Del was surprised to see a guy delivering the extra propane tank already. Del walked over to be friendly (and to maybe learn something) and asked if it would be OK to watch him work. The gentleman was friendly and invited Del to keep him company while he worked. It did not take long to set the tank as it was on a special trailer made just to haul the tanks. It took a little longer to hook it up and the man asked Del if they wanted valves in so they could decide which tank to use or if they wanted them to both always feed at the same time.
Del said he thought it would be much better to have a choice and the man agreed and said that was the way he had planned to do it anyway. About the time he was done the propane delivery truck also showed up and filled the two tanks. As Del was paying the driver he said he was surprised they got things done this quickly.
The driver said with things going downhill lately they were getting very slow and with the weather getting warmer he thought many people were trying to just get by with what they had in their tanks until next fall. The driver reminded Del that any pilot lights would have to be relit after they shut the gas off to add the extra tank. The man volunteered to light them but Del said they would get it fine by themselves.
With the propane guys gone Del went to find Deb and have her show him what pilot lights they had to light. The water heater, the furnace, and the oven (the top burners had electric starters) pilots were all re-lit and Deb had Del do it so he learned how with her only giving directions.
The next couple days were major learning experiences for Del and Eve. Neither had ever lived on a farm and both were surprised at the amount of work it entailed, though both thought they could get used to it and they really enjoyed the peace and quiet. Deb showed Del how to turn the windmill on and off that he had been so excited about when he had found out she had one on the farm in one of their many phone calls.
The water from the windmill could be ran into a large storage tank that Deb said she rarely used instead just ran it into a trough her one cow had access to. Del asked her about the pipe he had seen near the bottom of the storage tank and Deb said that ran to the house but she did not use it because of the electric powered well that fed the house now. Del snooped in every shed and the small barn. He asked about where she got the hay from and found out it was from her next door neighbor (who was about a mile and half away).
They all watched the network news in the evenings and the news was very bad indeed. Chicago was burning and a no man’s land by the forth night they were at the farm. And Chicago wasn’t the only city that was suffering. Many large cities were almost out of control with the police just hanging on in a few and overwhelmed in others.
The National Guard was being mobilized in many states to try to restore order but to Del it looked like too little too late. Fuel prices could not be reported with any kind of accuracy because any station that had fuel was charging whatever they wanted and some would not even take cash anymore, no one accepted credit or debit cards. Gold and silver or in some cases other trade goods including food were used to buy things now. Not that there was much to buy in any city.
Looters had ransacked almost every business and many had also burned. Smaller towns were much better unless they were near big cities as many people had left the cities with no place to go and huge numbers had run out of fuel on highways and in small towns. Highways were full of stopped vehicles and people walking. Trucking had totally stopped early on from both a lack of fuel but mostly from the large numbers of hijackings. With deliveries ending even grocery stores not looted had empty shelves.
It was worse every day. Then the electric power started to fail in many places due to varied reasons. Natural gas and electric power were both shut off in many cities due to all the fires t
hat ravaged the cities. Utilities had no choice but to shut down as leaving them on would have only made things worse. Coal-fired power generating plants were running out of coal as deliveries had stopped and all power plants suffered from lack of employees showing up for work. The whole United States was shutting down and falling into chaos. After ten days of rapid decline Martial Law was declared in the US though most citizens would never hear about it due to no power and by this time an almost total lack of communications.
Chapter Seven
On the third night Deb apologized to Del and Eve for calling them crazy. She admitted to being totally naive about how fast and how far society could fall. She thanked both of them for coming to live with her and everything they had done so far. Eve and Del said how thankful they were that she let them stay with her and that they all had what they hoped to be a safe haven to live out this storm. They all watched in awe at the destruction of their country. Then TV stations started going off the air and they lost their satellite internet and then they were listening only to the radio. The radio did not last long either and they had no power and no communication at all with the outside world.
Del had let the windmill gradually start to fill the large storage tank. He let some go in and then drained it out a few times to clean it out some. When the power went out Del (with Deb’s help) rinsed out the pipe line going to the house. They had to change some of the plumbing inside the house that had been disconnected to hook up the water coming from the new electric well. But the parts were still there and soon they had water again in the house.
