by Hayden James
Dwight suspicions of Sheriff Murphy were also corroborated with the notion that the sheriff highly supported Tucker Hollow’s new mayor, Mayor Elisa Tyler. Mayor Tyler ran on the principles of strengthening the social safety nets, the ones that perpetuated helplessness and gave away goods and services to families who did not go out and earn them.
Sheriff Murphy’s question really set Dwight off. There was no way he would reveal that he has enough water, food, and natural resources to last decades. Only to have those resources reallocated to the surviving local townspeople and ration them for the rest of their lives.
The sheriff turned his horse around and said to Dwight as he was about ready to leave, “Glad to hear that you have enough food to last you a few more days. I’ll stop by and check on you in a day or two. If you need anything, come on into town and I will make sure you get what you need.”
“Why thank you, that is very generous of you,” replied Dwight. Deep inside, Dwight was hoping never to see this man again. “Have a good day.”
“Good day,” the sheriff replied as he rode his horse back down the gravel driveway.
Dwight headed back inside his main house. He hurried down to the basement and through the door that led to a tunnel he dug years ago, connecting the main house to the cave bunker in case his family needed to shelter and could not go above ground.
He walked through the carefully excavated tunnel that was reinforced with thick sheets of metal welded together and supported by tube steel. This created a strong and moisture resistant tunnel that was thoroughly reinforced. The tunnel led to the elaborate bunker that was built in the side of the Great Smoky Mountains.
Dwight unlocked the vault door that he had specially ordered from a company that makes doors for bank vaults. The vault door was molded from concrete for the panels. The hole for the lock and the sides of the door were clad in stainless steel. The door locked with numerous massive metal bolts extending from the door into the frame. The lock itself was a dual-combination lock with two dials and it did not use electricity. Once William’s family would get here, they would be given the combination to one of the dials, but the only person who would know both combinations would be Dwight. That way, it would ensure people always traveled in pairs and required two people to cooperate to open the door. This was a safety measure, ensuring the inhabitants would remain safe inside.
Unlocking the door, Dwight opened up the vault door to his prized work. An elaborate bunker, outfitted with every piece of living imaginable. The bunker entrance gave way to the large dining table. In the kitchen, there was a large pantry, filled with enough food for two years. Rice, beans, peanut butter, crackers, protein bars, powdered milk, instant coffee were some of the dried goods Dwight kept. He also had flour, which was only good for a year, but he could combine it with salt and water to make hardtack that would last for a few years. Hardtack could be dipped in water or fried with butter to have a sustainable meal.
Dwight also had been canning vegetables for the last five years, and the canned goods were kept in a separate storage room along with honey. In one of the cabinets in the kitchen, there was Dwight’s alcohol supply of hard liquor. He had an assortment of vodka, whiskey, and rum.
Dwight had also been dehydrating meats for the last few months. He’s been picking up lean cuts from the butcher shop in town and using his own dehydrator located in the kitchen of his main house, he vacuum-sealed hundreds of slices of meat that could be eaten and was a good source of protein. In the kitchen, part of the water system came through a hose a nozzle hung from the ceiling of the shelter. If for some reason the water system was not functioning, and they could not go outside because of a chemical or nuclear attack, there was a passageway off of the kitchen that allowed access to the cisterns.
After the kitchen and dining area, the bunker led to a hallway where bunks of beds were built into the wall. The beds were aligned so that the person sleeping would have their feet toward the hallway and would have what would seem like a private room, allowing them privacy during the disaster. These bed compartments were carved into the ground and then reinforced with concrete bricks and rebar.
Dwight also had medication stored in the bunker as well as a quarantine room in case anyone fell ill, he would not want the illness to spread to the others. There was a composting toilet in the bathroom of the bunker along with a water hose nozzle system similar to the one in the kitchen for showering and washing.
Finally, the bunker gave way to a vault of guns and ammunition where several AK-47s, Bushmaster Carbon 15 M4 Carbines, Glock 36s, Glock 17s, and various shotguns were kept. The armory had a separate vault door, which Dwight would only know the combination. He would be in charge of distributing weapons as need be, but that was the last choice option. After the armory, there was an escape tunnel that Dwight dug and reinforced that led to an exit farther down on the mountain range. He always believed digging a bunker without digging an emergency exit was essentially digging a grave.
After completing an inventory, Dwight figured that he had enough food, medicine, water, and weapons to last at least a two years for him and William’s family. That would not count the water source, livestock, and gardens that could make them sustainable for decades.
Dwight did not like the visit that he had from the sheriff. He felt it best to carry a rifle on him at all times. He went and found his Bushmaster from the armory and strapped it to his back. From now on he would carry it all the time. People were only going to get more desperate, and Dwight would need to defend what he worked so hard to have when the time came. That time was now.
Have Hope
Copyright © 2019 Hayden James
All rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced, stored on a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988, or under the terms of anybody since permitting limited copying issued by the copyright leasing agency.
This book is the work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidences either are the product of the author’s imagination or coincidental. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN: 9781070432359
Contents
Have Hope
Day One
1. Chapter One
2. Chapter Two
3. Chapter Three
Day Two
4. Chapter Four
5. Chapter Five
6. Chapter Six
7. Chapter Seven
8. Chapter Eight
9. Chapter Nine
Day Three
10. Chapter Ten
11. Chapter Eleven
12. Chapter Twelve
13. Chapter Thirteen
Day Four
14. Chapter Fourteen
15. Chapter Fifteen
16. Chapter Sixteen
Day Five
17. Chapter Seventeen
18. Chapter Eighteen
