Scavenger

by Jerry D. Young

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  SCAVENGER

  by Jerry D. Young

  Published by Creative Texts Publishers

  PO Box 50

  Barto, PA 19504

  www.creativetexts.com

  Copyright 2015 by Jerry D. Young

  All rights reserved

  Cover photo modified and used by license.

  Credit: Augustin Ruiz

  This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

  The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual names, persons, businesses, and incidents is strictly coincidental. Locations are used only in the general sense and do not represent the real place in actuality.

  ISBN: 978-0-692-59035-5

  SCAVENGER

  By

  JERRY D. YOUNG

  CHAPTER ONE

  Jimmy Holden grew up in a very liberal household. Despite everything his parents and other extended family, related or not, tried to get him to grow up liberal, he didn’t. He wasn’t right wing extremist conservative, just… conservative. He believed in the Constitution. The way it was originally written, backed up by the beliefs of the time.

  When he was young he did as he was asked, working on the commune’s farm with little protest. He learned then that it was approach as much as the act of doing something that made a difference.

  Those in the commune lived a day to day existence. They talked about self-sufficiency, but never seemed to be self-sufficient. Many were on welfare of one type or another, and despite the rules shared what they had with the rest of the commune during tough times. And they always seemed to have bad times. They felt sharing more important than their word that they wouldn’t.

  Sure, that garden and small animal farm provided them with salads in the summer and some small amount of meat in the fall, but there was never enough to put up for the winter.

  Many were vegetarians and even Vegans. They bought most of their food at health food stores with the income some of them produced, and what some could get on welfare.

  They lived off the grid, sort of. They needed phone for internet, because the internet was the great equalizer of ideas. And they needed electricity for the computers, the co-great equalizer, to use the internet, and as a good way to buy self-sufficient things like hemp products.

  Abhorrent as the thought of fur was to them, leather shoes and other products were all right. Of course they used things made of hemp when they could. When they couldn’t, plastic was all right. They needed gasoline for the vehicle which they needed to transport those that had jobs to and from them. They just didn’t link the use of petroleum, which killed seabirds and seals, with their use of oil based products. The oil industry yes, themselves, no.

  No TV, of course. But music was good for the soul, enough so that electronic instruments were okay.

  There was just inconsistency after inconsistency. The home school education was very liberal and leftist. Fortunately, Jimmy had access to a good county library and had the will to learn on his own. As he grew older, while he still bore responsibility for much of the farm operation, he also found work in town.

  When he left the commune to enter the military when he was eighteen, it was the last time he was welcome there, if he was going to be a baby killer. The fact that he would be going for a business degree in college after his service was up, and then would be entering big business, an anathema to the members of the commune; put the permanence to his lack of welcome. His parents wouldn’t even say good-bye to him when he left the commune to get on the bus headed for basic training.

  His test scores would have let him into just about any MOS in the Army. He opted for, and was taken into, the sniper program. He’d never handled a weapon of any kind before, and learned the basics of shooting in boot camp, and the fine art aspects of it in sniper school. He was rotated into the Gulf as soon as he graduated.

  Jimmy kept to himself, as much as he could, during his six years in service. Being a sniper and a true expert at all types of camouflage, including role camouflage, it wasn’t hard for him to do. Even when there were other people around, he was alone with his own thoughts. Mostly thoughts of the future, and how not to live it the way his parents and their commune did.

  He went into the service with five hundred dollars in his pocket from jobs he’d done, and the clothes on his back. His very nice enlistment bonus, as well as all of his pay, he put into gold and silver coins, kept in the internet ‘no-records’ dealer’s vault. Jimmy took advantage of just about every free service the military offered, including free travel, when available. He still had over a hundred dollars of the five hundred he’d started with when he mustered out.

  The military was paying his way through school. He found a decent job that paid all his living expenses, plus a bit. He had on campus housing, and got around on a Montague Paratrooper bicycle, like the ones he’d seen some of the troops use in the Gulf. It was his first big purchase since he’d left the commune.

  Summers he worked a second job, acquiring more gold and silver with the money earned. He now had the gold and silver on site, cached in several places.

  The college sponsored many free activities and Jimmy, as he had in the Army, took advantage of them. They provided something of a social life, as much as he wanted. He studied hard and worked hard. It didn’t leave much time to play, hard or otherwise. Jimmy was still a conservative, and simply ignored the highly liberal aspects of the college during his time there, though he didn’t violate the no guns rule the college had implemented.

  With his military service and excellent academic record, Jimmy had no problem getting a good project manager’s position with a national company when he graduated. He continued his austere lifestyle, finding an efficiency apartment within biking distance of his work. Jimmy now began the second stage of the long range plans he’d developed while still in the Army.

  It was coming up on the 2016 elections, and all indications were the Democrats would go into a second four-year term of controlling both houses of congress and the presidency. The first four years, beginning in 2013, the Democrats concentrated on establishing a solid base with their supporters.

  2017 was looking to be the start of very bad times for those with a conservative mind set. Plans being discussed openly now included a new, more comprehensive assault weapons ban, including restriction of person-to-person sales of weapons; open borders to the point of a new combined nation; restrictions on gold and silver ownership; a new luxury tax; and mandatory ID chip implants. Only those with implants would be entitled to certain benefits. Rumored, but not announced, was a wealth reallocation program involving the continuing changes to currency design, and eventually a total gun ban, starting with a handgun ban after the new AWB was in force.

  Jimmy began to spend money like it was going out of style. Every penny that didn’t feed, house, or transport him went into preparations for the upcoming political changes. Person-to-person sales of firearms were still legal in his state, so Jimmy began to attend every gun show in the state, acquiring off the record items sure to be banned or controlled in the future.

  He had a feeling that a few people were starting up straw-man purchase schemes, but Jimmy didn’t question the people from whom he bought, except to confirm in some way that they weren’t setting him up. He was careful never to ask, or even impl
y, for someone to buy something over the table so he could buy it from them without paperwork.

  Non papered items, like spare parts, he bought over the table, here and there, never making large purchases of any one item at any one dealer. It was the same with ammunition. He bought thousands of rounds from no-records dealers and individuals.

  He turned around and sold some items to dealers, getting clear bills of sale for them, in case there were any questions in the future about his presence at the gun shows.

  Having used a Barrett .50 BMG caliber sniper rifle in the Gulf, Jimmy wanted one, but was having no luck finding an un-papered one. It was the only thing on his list that didn’t get marked off during 2016.

  One of the other things he did get in 2016 was a good vehicle. He went shopping at the junkyard in January for parts. By December the thing was completed.

  The frame came from a 2008 1-ton Chevy extended crew cab with eight-foot bed. Jimmy had the frame reinforced. The pickup originally had a diesel in it, but that had been pulled. Jimmy opted for another diesel engine, but a GM 6.5 non-electronic model.

  The engine carried and drove a high capacity GM generator from a wrecked semi. Also from the same semi came an air compressor and power steering pump. A second power steering pump from another truck was mounted for use with hydraulic tools.

  The air compressor and the second power steering pump had accumulators. The air conditioning pump was a new GM unit. On a custom bracket was mounted a Premier Power Welder 190 amp on-board welder.

  Transmission and transfer case were the original one-ton units. Two driven steering axles and the rear steering control came from USA6x6.com. The suspension was a heavy duty air shock system, adjustable from standard stance to a six-inch lift. Everything was protected by heavy skid plates.

  All lube points that didn’t rotate were extended to the right front wheel well. All vents were snorkeled, as was as the air intake and the dual exhaust system, for safe fording. All wiring was placed in sealed metal conduit for water proofing, abrasion resistance, and EMP resistance. High pressure stainless steel pipe and fittings were used to run air and hydraulic power to the front and rear of the vehicle.

  Three fuel tanks were custom built and installed, two along the outboard sides of the frame and one center rear of the frame. All were skid plated.

  The body was made from two wrecked Suburban’s. The front two thirds of one and the rear two thirds from the other. The additional length was needed for the longer wheelbase of the extended crew cab, long box pickup frame.

  Under the hood, fed by the generator were three batteries, hooked up through an isolator. Two were heavy-duty starting batteries for the twenty-four-volt starter. The third battery was a heavy-duty deep cycle battery for twelve-volt power, and with the inverter installed, 120v power, too.

  The original dash had been removed from the front section of one of the bodies and a custom one built, using mechanical gauges wherever possible. Simple electronic gauges were used where necessary.

  Eight-way leather adjustable bucket seats were installed for driver and passenger. An identical set of seats made the Suburban a four-seater, with access to the rear of the vehicle by going between the rear seats. And there was a huge amount of cargo room in the rear section of the Suburban.

  A low console was built between the front bucket seats, up to the dash. It contained the main 12-volt power feed from the batteries. All individual lighting units were routed through a series of relays and switches under the console. Switches on top of the console panel controlled the auxiliary lights.

  When opened, the panel exposed more switches. They allowed the driver to activate or turn off brake lights and tail lights independently of the normal automatic switches. There were also overrides for the automatic interior lights so they wouldn’t come on when the doors were opened. When folded closed the switches to override the automatic switches was hidden.

  In the section of console between the switch panel and the dash, were mounted the radios the Suburban normally carried. A lift up fine copper mesh cover, coupled with the copper enclosure box protected them against EMP. There were switch controlled relays to isolate the power and antennas from the faraday cage. Another faraday cage was built into the dash in front of the passenger seat to hold a laptop computer and portable color printer.

  A large GPS mapping screen was on the face of the dash above the floor console. It boasted voice activation and speech capability. Jimmy didn’t bother with trying to EMP proof it.

  The rear of the Suburban was accessed from outside with a custom built door system. There was a lift glass in a lift gate and split swing open lower doors.

  The front bumper assembly was a shop built unit. It incorporated a spare tire carrier, hydraulic winch, 2” receiver, brush guards, light mounts, and two contoured tool boxes.

  The rear bumper had a 2” receiver, swing away mounts for a spare tire and four jerry cans, and a ladder to the roof rack. The full length roof rack carried two spare tires, four remote control spot/flood lights, and additional high intensity lights, as well as the antennas for the communications gear, with plenty of room to carry additional gear.

  One inside side tool box contained hydraulic and air tools, a receiver mounted hydraulic winch, and accessories for the winches. The other side tool box contained pioneer tools like shovels, pick-mattock, axe, pry bars, and Hi-Lift jack. That still left plenty of room for cargo.

  The first piece of major legislation in 2013 was the new AWB, even more restrictive than the previous one. It included anything over .458 caliber in rifles and handguns, modern or antique, weapons originally designed for military use, and magazines of more than six rounds. Only the grandfather clause that was part of the original legislation was taken out, allowing current owners to keep their weapons that didn’t conform to the ban, though they were strongly encouraged to turn them in ‘for the good of the nation’.

  Private sales were banned completely. All sales had to go through a licensed dealer and there was a twenty-five dollar transfer tax charged on all purchases, both incoming and outgoing. Sixty percent of gun dealers in the United States went out of business within two years.

  Americans were once again denied the right to own gold bullion and coins. This time the ban and recall involved silver, as well. Any coinage of any nation containing gold or silver minted after 1932 had to be turned in for face value. A set buy back price of fifty-dollars per ounce of gold and two-dollars per ounce of silver was announced for bullion and non-denominated coinage.

  Only numismatic gold and silver coins prior to 1932 were allowed. Any coins valued for bullion purposes had to be turned in. Making, owning, and wearing jewelry of a design created for bullion purposes was prohibited. The decision of whether or not an object was considered bullion was strictly up to a government committee.

  Only paper ownership of gold and silver was allowed, such as mining and related stocks. Ownership of electronic gold and silver was also banned, as was in absentia ownership of gold and silver anywhere in the rest of the world.

  Penalties were harsh for those not cooperating in the turn-in, and penalties for smuggling precious metals and guns even harsher.

  In the rest of the world gold jumped to $1,500.00 an ounce, and silver $60.00 an ounce. Numismatic prices also skyrocketed.

  Jimmy had obtained a concealed weapons permit as soon as he left the military, though he didn’t carry on the college campus, since it was banned when he was there. He’d picked up an old, reliable Colt 1911A1 and a couple of spare magazines to use with the permit. It was the one gun he had registered. All his precious metals, guns, and related items were cached.

  As he began to accumulate food, part regular packaged goods off the grocery shelves, part LTS (long term storage) food, he cached much of it, too, in environmentally controlled warehouse rooms, all over the city. There were also a couple of caches outside the city, but it was harder to find the environmentally controlled ones, which he wanted for the food storage.
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  Food prices were already going up, due in part, to the bad weather going into the second decade of the 21st century. Jimmy was becoming concerned that food distribution would eventually come under federal government control. There was talk of hoarding laws becoming possible in the future. Jimmy wanted LTS food purchased and cached before the companies were forced to keep long term records.

  But no matter how much stored food you have, it will eventually run out. Jimmy wanted a permanent supply, or as permanent as humanly possible. Other than unlimited money, that meant he would have to have control of the source, or sources, of food. The only simple way to do that was a working farm. He began to look for one and also some farm hands, preferably a family with a couple of part time hands.

  Jimmy couldn’t find the ideal situation. He settled for investing in a moderate sized farm that needed capital to improve its operation. It had been inherited by two brothers and a sister, all of whom had gone to agricultural college. They knew what they wanted to do with the farm, but didn’t have the means.

  Jimmy liked their ideas, and gave them the money, in return for a percentage of food production for as long as the family owned the farm. One stipulation was that they began a small scale biodiesel operation, financed by Jimmy. Again, it wasn’t ideal, but Jimmy decided it would have to do.

  They agreed to his stipulations, including managing small herds of Black Angus cattle, American Bison, and horses that Jimmy would buy and keep at the farm for future use.

  The housing market collapsed in 2014. Interest rates had skyrocketed as taxes increased under the very liberal Democratic control. Jimmy decided to take advantage of the collapse. He had great credit. Property values were decreasing and he was able to find some very good deals on land in several small towns around the city. In each he bought a large corner lot in a good neighborhood and built a quadraplex on it, with full basement, which was reserved for his use alone.