Catastrophe in America

by Pete Thorsen

  United States citizens were mad as hornets and wanted blood. The switchboards at the Capital building and at the White House were swamped everyday. Americans wanted action and they wanted action now. If the government could not figure out who was attacking us (no group had claimed responsibility) then our government should nuke all the Middle Eastern countries. By destroying them all they were sure to hit the correct one and most Americans were ready to do just that.

  When it was reported that our government could easily tell where the nuclear bombs had been made there was a huge uproar from the citizens demanding the answer of who had made the bombs. But again Congress and the White House were silent. Congressmen said they did not know that information because only the White House got information like that. The President remained silent on the issue.

  When TV news interviewed a bunch of experts many of which said this was the obvious results of having the open borders here for so many years where anyone could come and go as pleased across our borders, it inflamed the US citizens even more. And calls for the borders to be sealed were being shouted everywhere there were people. Huge crowds gathered outside the Capital and the White House with people demanding to be heard and obeyed by those elected by the people into office.

  When actions were not taken fast enough calls went up for a special election to replace all of them in Washington. And the people did not just protest and call their elected officials, many took action. Every person that even looked like they might be from the Middle East was hounded and many were killed or severely beaten. Mosques across this nation were burned to the ground. Large numbers of the Muslim community self-deported out of our country while they were still alive to do so.

  And it wasn’t just the Muslims that were attacked but most any foreign speaking or foreign looking people were not safe. Soon Mexicans were pouring across our southern border but going south this time.

  Americans had had enough. Neighborhood watches were set up and in just about every case they were heavily armed. No one out at night was safe no matter who you were. If you were a good American you should be at home in your bed at night (or on patrol of your neighborhood).

  The terror attacks stopped. Fires that were burning were gradually put out or they burned themselves out. Congress repealed the Posse Comitatus Act and some military were placed on our southern border. For the first time since we became a nation our southern border was closed and sealed except for heavily guarded entrance points. Anyone was allowed to leave the United States but few were allowed to reenter without a valid US passport. Even the Navy was ordered to assist the Coast Guard in patrolling our shores.

  Things calmed down but a lot of damage had been done. Physical damage, economic damage, and emotional damage had changed us. Our nation that was once so free and proud had been changed and not for the better. Now we were bitter, suspicious of everyone, and tempers were near the surface.

  Chapter Seven

  It had been some time now since the nuke blasts but the US stock markets had not re-opened. Granted both NASDAQ and the NYSE were too close to the blast site to survive but I assumed they had an alternate site they could operate from but maybe it was just as well that they remained closed. With the markets closed there could be no losses, right?

  World markets were open and that situation was ugly indeed with the huge drop in values. Banks everywhere were obviously well in the red because all were tied to the market values. Even with the US markets being closed did not help the big US banks because they had invested heavily in foreign markets also. I think technically many of the big US banks were now insolvent but were still open for business anyway.

  There had been a rush on the banks but that had pretty much stopped now when people saw that everything was still going along. It was all a sham I think. Sure the banks could get money from the Federal Reserve so they would have cash to hand out to their depositors but was that cash worth much?

  Prices were on the rise for many things and imports were slowing to almost a stop. I think there are some very high level talks going on worldwide about world’s banks and all country’s currencies that us mere peons are not privy to.

  Gas has really went way up and it has so far been totally blamed on the destruction of those three very large refineries but I wonder if there is more to it than that.

  Then people found out that insurance policies do not cover any nuclear damage or any damage that is a result of terrorism. The United States federal government has vowed to cover damage from the two nuclear explosions but that money will be very slow in coming like all government functions.

  But the insurance companies are refusing to pay homeowner’s for any fire set by the terrorists and that is affecting hundreds and hundreds of regular people across the whole country. There is talk that again the federal government will pick up the tab but where is the federal government going to get all that money? They are broke and way in debt remember.

  Plus with the slow pace of our federal government even if they did pay for all the terror damage that could takes many, many months or even years and what would those people with the losses do in the mean time when they had nothing?

  Many people are trying to cash in their IRA’s and their 401k’s but all the financial institutions are refusing because the stocks can not be sold due to the stock markets being closed. They will not even let anyone take out a loan from their 401K’s or let them use either as collateral for a loan. Those people are just out of luck and it is causing a lot of problems and resentment.

  So some people have lost their homes and can not get paid from their insurance company and they can not use any of their retirement funds because they can not access them right now. People can pull out money from their standard savings accounts and checking accounts but that is about it.

  Parts of the United States are still without electric power thanks to the destruction of so many electrical sub-stations and it is being reported that many of these can not be repaired very quickly because they have to wait for special parts to be shipped in from overseas and in some cases these parts have to be specially built before they can then be shipped.

  There have been no terrorist attacks now for some time which many are wondering about. What happened to the remaining terrorists? Were all of them killed or did they leave the United States? If they are still here why did the attacks stop? Many of those questions were answered when many electrical sub-stations were again attacked and destroyed. Then home invasions, highway shootings, multiple fires, and one more refinery was attacked and destroyed.

  They had apparently just been lying in wait for the heat to die down and for people to again get more complacent and then they attacked all over again. And we got to get an idea of just how many of these terrorists were still in the United States because there were well over one hundred and fifty attacks that had occurred at roughly the same time and many of those had to involve more than just one terrorist.

  Gun control laws across the nation were ignored by honest citizens with many now carrying guns where ever they went, legal or not. And again there were many fatal shootings of people who even looked foreign. Many hundreds more people left the United States even though many of these were now citizens of this country. Some of these people had originally left their home countries due to threats of harm and now were leaving the United States for that same reason.

  It wasn’t fair to persecute people because of their skin color or accent or whatever but many people thought this was war and it was a well known fact that war was hell and always in wars a large number of innocents were killed or suffered harm. There were even riots in US prisons where one faction started fighting another faction over what was taking place on the outside of the prison walls.

  Of course the police were trying to do their jobs and they arrested many otherwise honest citizens and this did not sit very well with the population either. Police soon found themselves in bad situations fighting for their lives against not drug dealers or robbers but against
regular working men and women and even sometimes their own neighbors.

  Now rolling blackouts and brownouts were common place in the USA. So called ‘experts’ on TV made claims that if any more sub-stations were destroyed everyone would be without power because the whole electric grid would go down. They also warned that if the grid did all go down it would take a long time to bring it back up. Right or wrong they spread their own brand of terror in the hearts and minds of people listening to those broadcasts.

  The government now deployed regular military units across the United States to protect vital infrastructure. All power plants (about 7000), all remaining sub-stations (about 55,000), and scattered more troops across all our highway system for added protection. Of course there just were not enough troops to cover all these potential targets effectively.

  With US combat troops deployed basically everywhere on US soil many people were starting to express concern about whether the USA was still a free country or not. While these troops were (for the most part) not bothering any US citizens it was scaring many US citizens as much or more than the terrorists did.

  Everyone knew and could plainly see that it would now just take just one very small step for our government to become a totally tyrannical and oppressive entity. This became a very real fear in a large number of American citizens.

  The term ‘Martial Law’ was on the lips of a large number of United States citizens. Everyone was wondering what our government would do next. They seemed to not be doing anything to the Middle Eastern countries that had spawned these terrorists.

  Chapter Eight

  Many things were happening in the United States and little of that was good. The Gross Domestic Product index had went down for the last two quarters. Technically that meant we were now in a recession but we all knew that anyway. There were so many things that were just hanging over our heads like the United States stock markets still not being opened. Granted we all knew if the markets opened they would go into freefall but just leaving them closed solved nothing.

  We had to take our beating so we as a country could move on. If this action then caused some or all of the big banks to close, even the ones that previously were said to be ‘too big to fail’ so be it. If we had to take one on the chin then let it come but either way we had to move on as a country. We could not stay in this state of limbo forever.

  Many things were happening like so many more people being forced to go on entitlements like the food stamp program. Many businesses had closed or were burned down by the terrorists that put large numbers out of work. With no more jobs people had no choice except to apply for government assistance whether they wanted to or not.

  The last government numbers came out and said that there were now more than seventy six million people on our food stamp program. And it was costing the government a lot of money it did not have for this one program alone. Something had to give.

  The government lowered the amount that was given each month on the food stamp cards. They cut the amount by twenty percent and this at a time when food prices were rapidly rising. There were riots in many cities almost immediately. And this included in the state of Virginia.

  Where I worked was no exception and business dropped off and some workers had to get laid off. I was still working but the future did not look very bright.

  Two weeks later my boss called everyone into the office and said he was closing the business. He had enough money to give all of us an extra two weeks of severance pay but we were all on our own. He said he was sorry but there was nothing else he could do. He thanked all of us for being good employees and he wished us all the best.

  That night at home when I watched the news and weather they were talking about the hurricane that was growing in the Atlantic Ocean. It was heading for the eastern coast of the US and they showed several possible paths that were predicted. All but one of those predicted paths led over much of the eastern shores of the USA. The hurricane was only a category one so far but all predictions showed it increasing in intensity and becoming at least a category four by the time it made landfall.

  I thought about my future and the future of our nation that night as I lay in bed trying to go to sleep. The rioting from the food stamp recipients was even happening right here in my city to some extent and I knew things would get worse before they got better.

  Now we as a nation have a strong hurricane bearing down on us and it would undoubtedly cause millions and likely even billions of dollars worth of damage. And there was no money for these repairs and it would likely put even more people on government assistance. At some point during the night I did finally fall asleep.

  I had made my decision during those sleepless hours. It was too crowded here with way too many people in big cities fairly close around here. Plus why would I stay when I knew for a fact that a major hurricane was heading my way. I was leaving today and heading west. I had no destination in mind but I would drive west until someplace felt right.

  I did not own much and I was able to take everything I owned that I wanted to take. I took all my food, clothes, camping gear, and not much else. I stopped and bought a six gallon gas can and filled the can and my pickup’s gas tank and turned to the west. On the way out of town I bought some more food and more fuel for my camp stove and some more ammunition for my revolver. I also closed my checking account at my bank after cashing the two last checks from my job.

  I drove west and angled north still with no real destination in mind. I knew what I wanted would be found on the other side of the Mississippi River but I knew nothing else about any destination. I had some money but knew it would go fast so I decided I would camp out instead of going to motels to save money. I bought a big thick road atlas at a truck stop and used that to help me pick spots that I could camp out for free on state or national forest land.

  I had never traveled anywhere before or camped out before so this was all new to me. I learned as I went. My little pickup got pretty good mileage and I did not use the fuel in that new six gallon gas can but saved it case of an emergency. I learned that at some truck stops they had showers you could use and every couple days that is what I did.

  I did not drive fast and kept under the speed limit all the time and sometimes on the interstates where the speed limit was high I went well under the limit. I had no where to go and all the time in the world to get there. Plus driving slower gave me better gas milage.

  I listened to the radio and often found all news stations to listen to. The hurricane was now a category five and was moving slowly up the coast staying just barely offshore so it was retaining its strength. It was hitting all the coastal cities very hard and causing a lot of damage as I expected it would. When it got to Virginia it turned inland a ways and continued its northerly rampage. Once all over land the amount of damage it caused increased dramatically. By the time it turned back out to sea as just a common storm it had caused billions of dollars in damage and several deaths.

  It brought me no enjoyment that I had been right about all the damage from the hurricane along the east coast. Then I found trouble right here in the very center if the United States and it had nothing at all to do with the weather.

  Chapter Nine

  I had pretty much just got on Interstate 80 having only picked it up about twenty five miles back or so when I saw a rest area coming up so I decided to stop and stretch my legs. My small pickup is great in many ways but it is not really made for a big guy like me. The rest area was pretty empty like most of them were because gas was high and few people were doing any kind of traveling.

  I walked up and used the rest room and then just read the posted maps and wandered around a little. I was looking at a map when I saw a very pretty gal come out of the ladies room and head for the parking lot.

  A guy came up and stopped her and they started to talk. I could not really hear them and it was none of my business anyway. I saw the woman shake her head and turn to walk away when the man reached out and grabbed her.

 
; The pretty woman proved that she was not just a pretty face when she turned when he grabbed her and she swung her hand and slapped him. And I mean she slapped him hard and it hit with a heck of a noise.

  Made me rub my own face just thinking how bad that must have hurt the guy. Without realizing it I had at some point started walking in their direction and when the guy swung back with a clinched fist to hit the woman I was close enough to reach him.

  Granted I was a big guy and I was strong but I also did not know the first thing about fighting. But I knew that man was not going to slug that pretty girl while I was around. I reached out and grabbed the man’s arm to stop him from hitting the girl. I just grabbed his arm and pulled on it very hard. I heard and felt something give and the man let out a scream like a girl. When I let go of his arm it just flopped down by his side.

  Only now did I see he had a gun on his hip and he was trying to grab it from his right side using his left hand. I had read a book once and the author said that if you ever decide to hit someone with your bare hand remember that your hand contains many small bones and you should hit them someplace that is way softer than your hand is so you don’t end up hurting yourself. I made what I thought was a good fist and swung and punched the guy in the stomach with everything I had in me.

  I think I actually felt that man’s backbone because my fist went in his stomach so far. He let out quite a wheezing sound and then just crumpled up and fell to the ground. I reached down and removed his pistol that he had been after.

  “Are you OK ma’am?”

  “Yes I am. Thank you for your assistance.”

  “You’re most welcome ma’am. Here why don’t you take this pistol. I’m quite sure this man would want you to have it for your protection.”