by Ira Tabankin
A novel
Second edition
Copyright July 2015
Ira J. Tabankin
Knoxville, TN 39720
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my wife and true love, Patricia.
Thanks
I’d like to thank the many members of the survivalistboards.com who helped me with their knowledge, comments and encouragement. A very special thanks to Dianne Mayhew, and ConradCa who proofread and edited the manuscript making this edition possible.
Work of Fiction
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Forward
James Rickards (who's a financial lawyer and consultant for the U.S. government) wrote in his book Currency Wars: "If the currency collapses, everything else goes with it... stocks, bonds, commodities, derivatives and other investments are all priced in a nation's currency. If you destroy the currency, you destroy all markets and the nation."
On June 30, 2015, The United States national debt stood at over $18 trillion or $154,000 per taxpayer. (The Federal Government also has an additional $120 trillion in unfunded liabilities) What would happen if China demanded immediate payment of its $1.3 trillion debt because they lost faith in our ability to pay our debt? What would happen if our trading partners decided not to accept dollars for trade? What will happen to the value of the US dollar if it loses its status at the international reserve currency?
The Shelter is a series that explores what happens to average people when the dollar collapses and with it, the USA economy. The story follows two average people who strike it big by winning the lottery on the eve of the world’s economic meltdown. The economic collapse pushes the world into a depression that makes the crash of 1929 look like a mild recession while also pushing the world to the edge of World War 3.
Prologue
Jay and Lacy Tolson were like any other average working couple. They are getting close to retirement age, their money is always tight, they, like millions of other families, live paycheck to paycheck. Jay’s been a “closet prepper” for years. Whenever he has extra money, he buys and stores extra food, water and ammo. Lacy works in the fracking industry. On a cold January day in 2015, the Greeks elected a young socialist as their new Prime Minster. His first act was to promise his people the end to the mandated austerity programs. He promised to restore pension and welfare payments and to reduce Greece’s 25% unemployment rate. The rest of the European Union watched with interest as the new Greek PM fought with his country’s lenders. If he succeeded in getting a better deal from his lenders, the other EU countries were going to follow his lead. True to his word, when Germany refused to loosen austerity terms on new loans to Greece, the PM withdrew Greece from the EU and the Eurozone. Other countries in the EU quickly followed suit, country after country defaulted on their loans, leading the Eurozone to quickly collapse. Money quickly flowed into the US dollar, gold, and silver.
Jay went shopping where he bought his weekly lottery tickets, to his shock he learned the tickets he purchased the previous week won the grand prize. He and Lacy netted over $28 million. With more money than they knew what to do with, Lacy resigned on the eve of being laid off. The US fracking industry was taking a financial beating because Saudi Araba was cutting the price of oil in order to crush America’s fracking industry which they saw as a major competitor. Jay and Lacy decide to buy a house in the small community of Portland, Tennessee. Portland is located to the north of Nashville, where they also acquire four farms giving them a total acreage of 1,000 acres. Jay, fearing an economic meltdown with the rule of law dying due to millions of people being hungry, he uses his new wealth to acquire gold and he builds a massive shelter under his cropland, an underground town that houses 40 people. He stocks the shelter with food and supplies to last his small community over a year.
China watched America’s debt soar, the Chinese government lost faith in America’s ability to ever pay back what it owes China. She demanded immediate total repayment from America, which didn’t have the funds to pay China. When America failed to make any debt payments China demanded repayment or she would accept the States of Hawaii and California in lieu of payment. When the President refused China’s demands, China sent a naval fleet to claim Hawaii, the US Navy responds by sending the largest battle fleet since the Second World War, led by the refit World War 2 battleship USS Missouri to stop the Chinese.
Low on cash, America announces it will postpone welfare, disability, and social security payments. The rule of law dies when the newly homeless, hungry and angry people take to the streets demanding the government keep their promises and make their payments.
Jay befriends the local mafia don while making an enemy for life of the local sheriff who shows up with his hand out looking for his share of Jay’s winnings.
Jay and his friends finish the shelter just before his home is overrun by thousands of homeless led by a biker gang. They attack and overrun Jay’s property. Book one ended with Jay telling his friends they have to rush into their shelter.
Chapter 1
The sound of footsteps on the concrete floor echoes off the cool, damp walls of the shelter. The low ceiling and LED lighting provides a harsh illumination that reinforces the feeling of being inside a sealed container. Shadows follow the footsteps as they walk the halls of the cement structure. The ceiling is lined with pipes carrying water, electricity and life-giving air to all corners of the shelter. There is a constant sound of spinning fans which push the air so it penetrates every inch of the shelter. The enclosed spaces reinforce and amplify sounds, making the footsteps sound louder than they would in the world above.
Sounds bounce off of the shelter’s walls sending conversations all over the facility. The sound amplification and echoes came as a surprise to Jay, he hadn’t given any thought to internal sound management. The forty inhabitants learn to lower their voices to a whisper if they desire any privacy. When they first took refuge underground, the families learned they had to make many adjustments in their daily routine. They were used to living in their own homes without neighbors living close to them. They’re now living in very small bedrooms with thin sheetrock walls, that don’t block any sounds from exiting or entering their rooms. Many have problems adapting to their new accommodations. Some learn the only way to block out the sounds is to use ear plugs. Upon entering the shelter, most of the forty felt relief and joy to have escaped certain death. They were under attack by over a thousand against only forty of the defenders. As their time in the shelter slowly advances, their mood changes from happiness to depression. They’re depressed remembering all of the things they’ve lost. They long for the warm feeling of the sun, they miss the sounds of birds, crickets, the beautiful sounds of nightingales and barking dogs. They miss being able to look up and see the stars at night or the billowy white clouds. They realize they don’t have any control over their future. They have no idea when, or even if, they will be able to exit their shelter, these thoughts settled on the inhabitants like a wet blanket. Many of the forty long for the fragrance of fresh cut grass and blooming flowers. Their initial joy of being safe gave way to feelings of helplessness and depression. The children and teens can’t understand why they can’t go outside to play, exercise or even do their daily chores. Adults worry about their belongings they had to leave behind when they left their homes. They worry if their homes and their family keepsakes they neglected to bring with them will still be there when they surface again. They worry what they will find
when or if they ever return home. Even those that didn’t like their old lives long to return to the way it was. Those who thought their lives lacked excitement prayed every evening to have their old boring life back. Every odd sound brings out their fear of being discovered. They’re playing hide and seek, with their lives hanging in the balance. They even began to worry that God wouldn’t hear their prayers since they were underground.
The forty people jammed into the shelter quickly learn they have to accept many sacrifices that are part of their survival. They left almost everything behind they cared about. They left their old lives behind when they squeezed into the buried box of a shelter which came with very little privacy. They’re hiding under the very crops they tendered every day. Except for those with military experience, very few people have lived in such close proximity to 39 others. Some of the people were almost strangers to them when they entered the shelter. Under such conditions, there are no secrets, everyone soon knows everyone else’s habits and personality quirks. The ‘grumpy before coffee’ are avoided until after breakfast, the ones who want to spend thirty minutes in the shower are reminded to conserve water, the ones who shouldn’t eat beans find their tray missing at meal time. Thirty-three days ago forty people entered the shelter as separate families, thirty-three days later most have bonded into groups of like-minded people. The most argued issue is entertainment. There are only two family rooms, one for the kids and one for the adults, the question of what they watch each evening is guaranteed to be the cause of angry words and a few times fist fights, a few got to visit the medical facility due to their fighting over a television program.
On their first day underground, Jay, their leader, explained that everyone above the age of seven has a task to perform. The jobs were to ensure everyone pitched in to the running of the shelter. Jay strongly believed that idle hands are the Devil’s workshop. The routines ensure preventive maintenance is performed so the shelter operates without any machinery failures which could become life threatening. There were no outside repair people to call, no 911, anything that broke had to be handled by the forty people living in the shelter. There were a limited number of spare parts, many of the ordered spares never arrived due to the collapse of the country’s economy. Once the existing parts were used up the group would have to figure out an alternative solution to any failure. Loss of power would cost everyone their life, without power, air couldn’t be pumped through the shelter, the water and waste pumps would stop, stored food would spoil. Most accepted their new jobs with a smile, they knew what would happen if a critical system in the shelter failed. Others thought the tasks were ‘busy work’, these people avoided performing their tasks, in some cases they didn’t even show up to check the equipment they were assigned. Those caught not working were shamed into going back to work. Anyone who didn’t respond to the public shaming quickly learned their daily supply of food was reduced. The rationale being, if one didn’t work, they didn’t burn the same number of calories. Hence, they didn’t require the same amount of food as those who worked. The public shaming at the communal meals, which combined with the reduction of food, was usually enough to send people back to work. This worked for a short time until the slackers figured out they could walk to their assigned workstations, hang around a little and go someplace else without actually doing anything.
One person out of the forty spends most of the day and night pacing the halls of the shelter. People follow his progress by the echoes of his footsteps which bounce off of the walls of the shelter. Jay is in a deep depression as he walks through the shelter complex, oblivious to everyone and everything around him. Some approach Jay trying to talk to him, they see the far away, glazed look in his eyes and want to reach out to him. They want to touch him and tell him everything is going to be OK. They want to thank him for having the foresight to build the shelter which saved their lives. When they look into his eyes, they stand aside making an opening for him to continue his walking, which he does without stopping. Jay’s thinking, I can’t believe that no matter how well we prepared, no matter how much ammo we had, or the type of weapons, we lost. Damn it, we lost. We built defensive positions, we built protected fighting positions. We covered our front lawns in hundreds of mines, all we accomplished was slowing down our attackers. We killed hundreds, maybe even over a thousand of them. What did it matter? We got overrun and were forced to hide underground. We built the shelter as a backup, a just in case. I never really thought we’d need to use it. Sort of like an insurance policy. I built it just in case. Just in case we had an accident. We had a big God Damn accident. I lost. I must have missed something in my planning. I must have forgotten something. All the time and resources I poured into our homes and farms is gone. Millions of dollars wasted. How could I have been so stupid? I thought I could make a small group of farmers into a defending army, I couldn’t have been more stupid. How can I look these people in the eyes ever again? I got many of them shot, I cost them their homes, I lost our crops. I failed everyone. It would have been better if I’d been killed. Jay wanders like one of the walking dead. He doesn’t see or hear anything. He walks because he’s afraid if he stops walking, his friends will ask him questions, questions he doesn’t have answers to. He knows the number one question is going to be, “when can we go home.” The spirits of the ones who died because of my ego are egging me on. They float in front of me, just out of my reach. They’ve told me if I catch them, I can release them. Release them from where? Release them to go where? No matter how quickly I walk or jog, they stay just out of my reach. I caused their deaths, if I also caused them to be trapped here, unable to go to heaven, then I really am a bad person. I have to reach them so their souls can be free.
Jay’s wife, Lacy spends most of her days watching and following Jay, she’s tried everything she can think of to reach him, to make him see he has nothing to feel guilty about. She knows her soulmate is suffering from the guilt of the wounded and the dead. As Jay’s soulmate, she’s sharing his suffering. Lacy’s eyes haven’t stopped tearing since Jay woke in the middle of the second night in the shelter, he sat up in a daze, got dressed and started walking the halls. Lacy tried to stop him, only to have him break away from her. She stands in the hallway watching the love of her life walk past with a dead look in his eyes. She doesn’t know what to do, she prays she hasn’t lost him forever. She’s lost in her thoughts when she jumps because someone touched her shoulder.
Tony, their beloved family friend & local Mafia Boss, had silently walked up behind Lacy, he touched her shoulder to get her attention, “Hi.”
Lacy jumped, she was about to scream, she didn’t hear or sense Tony walk up behind her. “Tony, that wasn’t very nice, you scared me. What do you want?”
Tony hugs Lacy, he looks into her bloodshot tear filled eyes, “How is he?”
“The same, I think he’s slipping away, he’s somewhere deep inside his own head. He’s torturing himself. Tony, I’m afraid I’m losing him. I can’t get through to him. He’s most likely living in his own reality, I wish I knew what that reality was.”
“Have you suggested he see the doc?”
“Tony, he doesn’t want to chat, he doesn’t talk, all he does is nod, I don’t know if he hears me or not. He spends his days and most of the nights walking the halls of the shelter. I think he’s going to wear the floors out. I’m worried about his health, he’s not eating and hardly sleeping. He’s gone a few days without even taking his meds. I can’t get through to him.”
Tony holds Lacy whispering, “He thinks he’s responsible for us being in the shelter versus our homes. It’s a perfectly normal reaction. I didn’t think he’d carry the guilt for so long or so deeply. The entire time I’ve known him, he’s been strong and self-confident. I’m starting to get concerned that he hasn’t snapped back to normal already. The downside of having a conscience is feeling guilt. That’s one advantage I have over him, I have no conscience. I’m a pure asshole. I never lose sleep over what I’ve done. At Jay’s
core, he’s a good guy which is his weakness. He ‘feels,’ I don’t, I have ice water in my veins. I have no heart, he has one of gold. He’s suffering from survivor guilt.”
“Tony, you’re not half as bad as you think you are. I know you have a good heart. If you didn’t, Nancy wouldn’t have stayed with you. You wouldn’t be here without a heart, I don’t think Jay would have been your friend if you had no heart.”
Tony smiles shaking his head, “Lacy, don’t tell anyone I have a heart, it will ruin my image.”
Lacy turns serious, “Tony, how are we going to get him back to the old Jay?”
“Lacy, we’ll find a way. Trust me, we’ll find a way. The community needs him. He’s the leader of our little group. Everyone followed him, everyone thought he had all of the answers. Many are depressed because they’ve started to lose hope we’ll ever return to the surface. We need him to be himself. If everyone thinks he’s gone, their morale will sink even lower than it already is. Let me see if I can get through to him.”
Lacy’s eyes are filling with tears, “Tony, please do something, you have to find a way to break through his guilt formed shell. I need him, we all need him. I’m so worried, I don’t know what I’d do if something happens to him. I need him so much, as do the kids.”
“Lacy, we all need him back to normal. Everyone has noticed his mood, how he’s withdrawn from the world into himself, everyone is feeling his depression that has spread to the others. If he doesn’t shortly snap back to his old self, we’re going to have to figure out how to deal with thirty-nine cases of depression. People want to know when they can go home. Everyone looks to Jay for having the answers. Right now all we have is questions. They try to question him as he walks past their rooms, he ignores them as if he doesn't even see them, which makes them even more concerned.”
