Trace of survival trilog.., p.36
Trace of Survival Trilogy, page 36
“You must do what you feel needs to be done to protect the good people. I must say that there are some good Muslim people in our country that do not follow the ideology of the Jihadists. They should be allowed to survive, but Sharia law will not be condoned, and forcing people to their religion will not be allowed. Murderers should be executed. You must deal with each situation as you encounter it, in an appropriate manner.”
25
The second summer and fall after the collapse were good ones. Our gardens were good, and we put up plenty of food for the next winter. One problem we had to solve before that spring, had been how to turn the ground for planting. The first year, everyone had pitched in, and we had done it by hand with shovels, picks, and hoes to initially break the ground. Then, we used a couple of small tillers for churning up the ground for final planting. During the prior winter months, the people working in the shop had designed a horse-drawn plow. They made several of these. One of them went to the people at the new Buffalo River settlement, and when the group made the new settlement at Colbert’s Ferry, they took one with them. Other groups also did some bartering with us for plows. These were what everyone needed for turning the ground.
After removing the DHS threat at Wheeler Dam, we had no more conflicts with any criminal elements that year. We continued to have contact with Captain Bateman. He and General Crews did decide to keep some troops stationed at the Columbia Armory. They felt that the place was needed as a central communications hub for the area, and as a secure rally point in case of any major incursions by a larger-than-normal criminal force. The town of Columbia was mostly abandoned at that point. There were three compounds established in it near places where they could grow some large gardens and field crops. There were still a couple of the old gangs there, but they had been decimated in their turf conflicts. Eventually, the remnants of them disappeared also.
The third winter after the collapse was a bad one. The previous winter had been too warm because of the solar flares, but the next one was just the opposite. It was too cold. We had several severe winter storms move through. Since the country’s weather service no longer existed, we had to be constantly prepared for the bad systems that came through, whether in warm weather or cold. We made sure that the village had plenty of firewood cut and located near homes where people could get to it when it was needed.
The saddest thing about that winter was when the flu epidemic hit. We never did know if it was the same strain that had hit the Asian countries a couple of years before. Doc had no vaccines, so we had to fight it the best we could. Most people in the village got it, but it was deadly to the very old and the very young. Most of our elderly residents died, including my neighbors that had lived there for many years. Several of the babies born in recent months also died, including the new daughter of Paul and Trish that had been born in the fall. We had been so happy to have a new little girl in our family, and then she was gone. After the epidemic did its damage, it died out in the village. The epidemic swept the country. Estimates were that another ten percent of the surviving population was wiped out.
The third summer after the collapse, we had our last contact with General Crews. He spent a few days with us while touring the country to see how things were going. During that visit, he informed me as to where the new capital of our US was located. It was in Kansas City, Missouri. They had set up in some abandoned government buildings and had established a military base nearby. A few months after his visit, we learned that a team of assassins was sent in to eliminate the leaders in the capital. They were able to get only one of them and that was General Crews. A hit man disguised as one of the general’s troops was able to get to him. The other leaders escaped harm. All the hit team was killed.
That summer, we also established a monthly trading fair at the old Meriwether Lewis Park for the communities and local populace that we had contact with. Here, people could bring salvaged items, food, crafted items, ammo, weapons, and other items to trade for things they needed. Some people even traded their labor to get needed items if they had nothing or very little to trade. The old, real silver coins became a monetary item that could be used to purchase items if a trader would accept them.
The wagons that we were building, and Paul’s small solar systems, were items that were in high demand. We tried to have some in production at all times. When a community needed one or more of them, we would accept silver, gold, food, or salvaged items in trade. We had a list of salvaged items that would help us in the village.
Most of the running automobiles gradually ceased to exist, except for what the military was able to keep working. The scavenged fuel ran out or went bad finally for the few we had. There was still the work being done to rebuild some refineries on the coast. The hope was that someday, some would be produced for the civilian communities to use. At that time, the military and government vehicles were getting everything that was produced from functioning refineries that had not been destroyed or damaged. Some industrious people were still trying to keep vehicles running by fueling them with alcohol they distilled, or with gasifiers.
We did continue salvage operations on a regular basis. There were millions of people in the country that had died because of the collapse and the subsequent events. Businesses and homes were vacant and abandoned because of the decimation of the country’s population. Nearly all survivors were scavenging things they needed. Josh and his crew developed an excellent system for scavenging and saving anything that could be useful. Eventually, the abandoned buildings would deteriorate and collapse. We salvaged everything we could in an ever-widening circumference. If we couldn’t use something we saved, someone else could at some point in time.
Everyone had adjusted to the rural way of living. Gone were all the conveniences of the old pre-collapse life. We worked the land, fished the streams, and hunted the forests. Mostly, we made the items we needed. Paul got the solar farm working. It was something that needed almost constant maintenance. We added some new people with electrical backgrounds to maintain it. One of them knew how to recondition old deep-cell batteries. We still had some folks running small generators and fueling them with gasifiers. With the solar farm working, and everyone able to get a little bit of power, if someone had installed water barrels to catch rain water, they were able to put small DC-powered pumps in the barrels, and pump some water into their homes. We were able to pump water from my well into larger overhead tanks in the bath house for showers and toilets that way also.
Being a cattleman in Texas, Bruce worked with Muchuri and Tia, Alfredo, and others to maintain our cattle and horses. Alfredo did get a mule line started. They made good plow animals.
The school that was set up the first year grew and improved over the years. As more kids came along, it flourished. We eventually wound up with four classrooms for different age groups. The primary teachers for the different classes were Nettie, Toni, Nancy and Trish. Others helped as assistants to them. The crèche for the pre-school children was managed by Meiko. There were others who taught classes on subjects pertaining to survival and crafting.
Our church was completed, and has been a comfort and joy to our people over the years. We didn’t have a regular pastor for a long time. Several of us took turns ministering to the spiritual needs of our people, until a young man named Larry came along and became our spiritual leader.
We had more marriages in the village: Katie and Ike, Winston and Samantha, Justin and Meiko, and many others. Katie and Ike, and some others, moved to the Buffalo River settlement to boost the number of people needed to make that village a success. Some more went to Colbert’s Ferry. Besides their vegetable gardens and raising livestock, that village became a large producer of corn, beans, and cotton. The cotton was needed to make cloth. That was an old craft that had to be relearned, as did many others.
The radio communication networks we set up in those early days have been maintained and improved when possible. Many times they have proved to be life savers, and a way to improve our lives. Without them, we could not have called for help when it was needed, and the other communities could not have called us for help when they needed it. Plus, it was a way to just pass along news in a timely manner. We also continued to receive reports of conditions around the world through ham operators and short-wave radio. Most of the world was in as bad or worse shape than we were. Only in third-world countries, where they lived in primitive conditions at the time of the collapse, did things remain the same.
My grandkids grew up. They weren’t the type of young people that developed prior to the collapse. There were no longer any cell phones or video games to dominate their lives. Living dominated theirs. They hunted, they fished, they worked the fields, and they appreciated the things that God had given them.
Reggie recovered from his busted leg, but he did feel some pain whenever the weather turned cold. He returned to his duties as head of our security. We still weren’t through with the Islamic Jihadists, Communists, and the scumbags that had surfaced during the collapse. Whenever we thought that we were through with them, another bunch of thugs would show up and try something. I lost count of the number of idiots that we had to kill in order to survive over the years. I know exactly how many of our people we lost. They are buried in our cemetery, and I honor them every day.
Epilogue
The old man grew silent. He watched the flames dance in the fire pit. Finally, he looked up and said, “Sorry, sometimes I get to thinking about something or someone, and I lose track of what I’m doing. Where was I?”
“You were telling us about ‘honoring’ our friends that have died,” said David.
“Yes…yes. Well, that was the end of my story, actually. I hope I haven’t kept anyone here that wanted to be elsewhere. I just wanted to make sure you youngsters understood some things about the early days of our village’s struggles. I pray you don’t have to endure any more of the hardships we’ve already had. I just want you to be prepared in case you do. You still have your parents and others to help guide you. You also have young ones behind you that will need to be taught and guided. I will be depending on you.”
“Da, it’s been fifteen years since the collapse. I remember a lot of how things were. Do you think there is a chance the country will ever return to what it was before?” asked Tommy.
“Lord, I hope not,” the old man replied.
“Huh! What do you mean?” Tommy wanted to know.
“It would be nice to have some of the lost conveniences back, but there are things I hope we never see again.”
“Like what?” Rand asked.
“To start with, a liberal government out of control, too high taxes, deadbeats wanting a free ride, paper money not worth anything, depending on stores only keeping two or three days worth of food on the shelves, abortions, liberals wanting to take God out of our lives, people wanting to kill us if we don’t accept their religion…and the list goes on. Do you kind of ‘get the picture’?” replied the old man.
“Yeah, I do. What do we need to do to make sure those sort of things don’t happen again?” the young man asked.
“Stop and think about it. You already know good from bad, and how to work. Just remember the way you were raised, and the things your parents and the rest of us went through in order for us to survive. And remember, the collapse and our hardships were brought on us because of those decadent, senseless, and sometimes evil things.”
He continued, “Soon you will start seeing some changes around here. Hopefully, they will bring a little better lifestyle for you, but you must not forget the lessons we’ve learned the hard way.”
“What do you mean by changes?” asked his granddaughter, Michelle.
“From the rebuilt old hydroelectric systems at Wheeler and other dams, we should be seeing some of the electrical grid working soon. They’ve been checking and repairing the lines in some nearby areas, I’ve been told. The main problem has been getting some transformers that are operational. The CMEs burned out most of them years ago.
The technicians have been finding the undamaged ones and ones with just minor damage, and getting them ready to be put back in service. They’ve had to do a lot of rebuilding on some. The manufacturing facilities that have sprung up around the dam complexes have been working against almost insurmountable odds to make the needed component repairs. Us and other communities have been supporting them with food, firewood, and salvaged materials that they need. Some of our people have also worked at the facilities and on the lines when they needed us.
I understand that the refineries on the coast are starting to produce some fuel that may be available to the public before too long. Some of the old vehicles can be made usable again, but the number of vehicles on the roads will be very small compared to what it used to be. And the roads themselves: they will need a massive amount of repair. We’ve kept ours in pretty good shape, but the rest of the country’s roads are in terrible shape.
So, you see, there is hope for a lessening of the hardships we have suffered over the years. You youngsters will be responsible for most of the work to be done, to make sure that our people don’t make the mistakes that were made in the past.”
He looked up at the people around the fire. Besides his grandkids, he saw the rest of his family and his friends. He smiled and said, “Y'all have spent most of the night listening to the yarn of a tired old man. Go home. I’m sure you have things you need to do tomorrow.”
They started making their way away from the fire pit, and headed back to their houses. As they left, they wished him a goodnight. Nettie was the last one left, besides him.
“Go to bed, Nettie,” he said. “I want to sit by the fire a little longer. I’ll be in shortly.”
She hugged him and kissed him. “Don’t be too long,” she said before walking away.
“I won’t be,” he said. He sat and looked at the fire a short while. Then he looked up, smiled, and closed his eyes.
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“For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend and a time to sow; a time to keep silent, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
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TRACE OF SURVIVAL: HOPE
By R. deLyndesay
pen name of Ron L. Lindsey
Editing by X. S. Lindsey
Copyright © 2014
This is a work of fiction.
Similarities to real people, places,
Or events are entirely
Coincidental.
“For then you will have a future,
And your hope will never fade.” Proverbs 23:18
TRACE
“What kind of animal is that?” Muchuri asked. The two men were doing the daily roving security check in the area immediately surrounding the village.
Carter looked at his brother-in-law and replied, “It’s called an elk. They are back in the wild here it seems. They were native to the area centuries ago, but were hunted to extinction around here. A few years before the Collapse, the state wildlife resources people started importing them from some northern or northwestern state and releasing them in wildlife preserves in the eastern part of the state. Isaiah told me that a businessman in Hickman County, the county north of us, got a permit and bought some. He raised them in an area with very high fences. I would guess that those have gotten out of their fences and are now expanding into the forests around us. I’m surprised it hasn’t been killed already.”
“It surely is big. Looks like a lot of meat on it. Do you want to take it down? It would provide a number of meals for the village.”
“No. It’s a cow,” Carter responded. “We need to let her live so she can produce more elk if there is a bull elk around. If we can keep hunters from killing them out, they can produce a good source of protein in the future. We’ll let the council and the other villages know about them.”
“We don’t have them where I’m from in Ethiopia. We have other big animals though,” Muchuri said. “I heard that there used to be an elephant sanctuary near here. I wonder if any of those elephants are still alive.”
“I don’t know. We need to check it out one day when we have nothing else to do, which isn’t very often,” Carter chuckled. He glanced at his friend. “Ethiopia’s a long way from Uganda, isn’t it?”
“Somewhat,” Muchuri confirmed. “A few hundred miles of African wilds separate them. I’m from the northern part of Ethiopia, which is about a thousand miles from there. Is Uganda where your sister and her husband went as missionaries?’
