Sunday, March 4, 2012

Catastrophy of the highest order..part ten

As you drive towards home you think about all the things you have seen since the time the world seemed to come to an end. You have seen the worst of people and the best of people. It seems like the division of good and evil. You either have the good or bad in people come out. Having seen the good things going on in Darlington made you feel lots better about things. Hopefully small communities will be able to come together and shape up a new way of living like they are on their way to doing.
You think that the south will cope way better than the big cities. It's a more simpler way of life down here than up in the metropolitan places like New York. Not that there isn't any folks in New York that can't cope. Upstate New York has a lot of farms and people that are used to the olden ways. As a trucker you have traveled many a mile across this great land and you have see the many farms and fields that seem to be almost self-sufficient. You think about the places that don't have a chance to survive. Los Angeles, San Fransisco, Portland Oregon, Seattle Washington, Detroit Michigan, Atlanta, Georgia, Miami, Florida and some other places. Anywhere there has been gang activity will have very hard hurdles to overcome. Maybe now that there is no law enforcement to speak of they will be able to develop a new sense of order. No more trails and juries to decide if a murderer needs to die. Just a quick bullet to the head or maybe bring back the gallows.
Now maybe the Senators and Congressmen that have sucked this country dry and confused the masses have now been rendered useless. Now they can pack up their bullshit in a sack and try to eat off of that for the next few years. All their money isn't going to do those fat-cats any good now you're thinking. They will be sitting in that big house up there in Washington DC without any electricity or food just like the rest of us.
You are thinking that even with all the tragedy that this has caused it just might be the wake-up call that America needs.
You remember a tale about the second world war. After Japan had decimated Pearl Harbor it was often wondered why the Japanese did not continue their attack on the United States and try to overtake the country. The Dictator of that time knew of the Second Amendment. He figured if he tried to attack the U.S. that he would be up against the biggest army in history. The armed citizens of the U.S. By the time you count all of the hunters and farmers and gun owners in this country, you have an armed assembly of 15,000,000. He was very aware that this attack on the U.S. would have been a losing proposition so the attack was never carried out. He would have been a fool to have tried it.
Now maybe there will be new lawmakers. Not the kind that have political pull but the lawmakers that have actually gotten their hands dirty. Some folks like the ones who were first elected to congress and senate. They were neighbors, friends and businessmen who served their one term and then got the hell out. Politics was never meant to be a career. It was to bring new fresh ideas into the thinking pool every two years. Not to sit up there and suck up the benefits of being an elected official and keep tying up the courts and abusing the system and being corrupted like most have seemed to be through the years.
You are thinking that if a foreign country does come over and try to take the country over that they will be surprised to find an actual "United" States of America.
Your heart goes out to all the folks that the catastrophe has taken a mortal toll on. It's a sad state of affairs you think but in the long run, whoever was responsible will pay the price.
As you mind wonders and ponders all of this, you notice that I-95 is coming up. Another 55 miles takes you to the state line (is there any states anymore?) then it's 15 miles further south, 12 miles west and your are home.
The distance goes by quickly and you are noticing your fellow citizens down here in the south are beginning to adapt. You see lots more activity and it seems like folks are starting to cope with things a lot better. Horses, small scooters, bicycles, wagons and quad runners seem to be the choice of transportation. You even see a Model T running down the interstate and you wonder how many m.p.g. it gets. Probably pretty good you are thinking because of the smaller motor it has. I guess it was a good thing that the owner hung on to it. Anyway, you turn on to the road to home and as you near you blast the air horn. In response you see your wife and children running excitedly over from the carport area.
You gather them up in your arms and you cannot remember ever being so happy in your life and by the way your family is acting neither have they.
You savor the moment for a long while and then you look around your small home and modest parcel of land. You have the confidence that you and your family have what it takes to get a new way of life kicked off. It's sink or swim time and you sure don't plan on sinking.
Welcome home dad!

Friday, March 2, 2012

Catastrophy of the highest order..part nine

You bring it to a stop and set the brakes. She comes over and meets you as you climb out of the cab. She is crying and her face is all swollen and red. You notice how she is very disheveled and the black rings around her eyes. Her dress was flimsy and torn and it looks like she has slept in the same clothes for a week. Her kids are filthy and both red-eyed and crying.
She tells you that her husband has been murdered, they have been robbed, she has been beaten and raped and the children witnessed it all. She asks if she could get a ride into town because their car won't start and she needs medical attention. The phones are also out and have been for two days. She tells you that the robbers had probably taken her husband's money he kept out in the barn in a bunch of mason jars. She is pretty sure that one of the robbers looked familiar and he more than likely knew it was there.
You look at her and your heart goes out to her and her children. You explain to her as best you can about why her car won't start and why the phones don't work. You also tell her that the town she wants to go to will probably not have any hospital that's open but you'll be glad to take her and her kids to town.
She looks back towards her house and then looks at your with pleading eyes and asks if you could please do one thing for her before they left. She explains how her husband has been lying in the floor for two days because she hasn't the strength to do anything with him and could you please help her with it.
At this point she is on the verge of hysterics and you agree to help. After you explain that taking him to town would probably be a bad idea, you both agree that a burial on the farm would be for the best.
You go to the shed and acquire a shovel and she points out the spot where she'd like you to dig his grave.
After a painstaking hour, you have dug a grave that should be sufficient. Without a ruler you can tell that it is deep and wide enough. No time to build a coffin so by the time you have the grave dug she has re-dressed him in some good clothes. You bring him outside and try to lower him into the hole gracefully. That doesn't work out to well so you have to go down and cross his arms and straighten him out a little. You climb back out and she is standing beside the grave with her hands down by her side. Her children are standing there in what you think might be shock. They have just seen their dad murdered, their mom assualted and now they are watching their dad get buried.
She looks up at you again with those pleading eyes and asks if you can please say something for him and offer up a prayer.
You remember a little bit about when you used to go to church so you recite some verses that you might think appropriate. After you finish the eulogy for the man you have never met but just buried, you ask the wife for a glass of water or something cool.
She brings out a small glass of water and explains that is almost all they have because the pump won't work without electricity. You down the glass in one gulp. The digging has left you sweaty and thirsty.
She says while you finish she will go and try to get herself and the kids presentable and pack a couple of things to take with them. She tells you if there is no hospital, she has some friends that she can stay with.
After you fill the grave back up with the sandy soil, she meets you back outside with the kids and a couple of tote bags. She has cleaned herself up and gotten the kids in some clean clothes. You feel so sorry for them and you still wonder about your family back home.
You get them loaded up in the truck, let off the brake and push it on down towards Darlington.
So much for getting home in a couple of hours you think.
You make it to the intersection of 151. There is a convenient store on the corner that is not open and you think to yourself that it's a wonder that it has not been broken into yet. Maybe it has but you can't see any evidence. A few hundred yards down the road you notice a couple of folks on horseback. They look somewhat official and you drive down to where they are.
They are sitting in the parking lot of a long-closed fast food restaurant called "Cindy's". It was a spin off of one of the other similarly named restaurants but it's your guess that it never caught on.
The folks on horseback are both armed and have badges on. You explain what you have just been through and then they notice the wife in the truck. They go and talk to her for a bit. You gather that they are part of a neighborhood militia and they knew the woman in your truck.
They come back and ask if you would be so kind to take her and her kids on down to the auditorium in town. They have set up a temporary shelter down there and they tell you that the woman and her kids will receive aid at that location.
You comply with their request and take them on down into town. As you pass by the raceway you think that there will probably never be another race held there. At least not this year.
You arrive at the auditorium and you notice that the community has set up a care shelter for all the folks in the county. There were lots of folks moving things around. Some of them had horse drawn buggys bringing in barrels of water and bags of food and others in older type cars and four wheelers were bringing in blankets, cots and other supplies. Generators had been set up and emergency lights and power were keeping the folks in electricity and giving them hope.
A lot of the residents from the local nursing homes had made their way there. One of the buggys was actually bringing in some port-o-lets.
You were thinking about how everything has gone back to the old days in a hurry. You watched and you learned about how people were setting themselves up to survive and you needed to get home to get your survival plan up and running.
The woman can't tell you enough how thankful she is and plants a kiss on your cheek. You tell her she's welcome and you watch her as you pull away. She is standing there with her two children and you hope that your wife and kids are not having to go what she just did. "God bless them" you think, and you start grabbing gears towards home again.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Catastrophy of the highest order..part eight

Ok..now we have the ole girl in gear and she's running good. The load is light and you have the ears laid back and rolling hard down highway 1. State route 52 is just past Cheraw and then the state park to go through. Continue south to 15 and through Hartsell. This puts you just west of Darlington. You know the area and most of the roads are two lane but very un-inhabitated.
You are concentrating hard on the road signs thru the park. Lots of switchbacks and a few hills that make you want to drop that trailer and let it all out. But, you hang on to it. Heck, you never know. It might happen to come in real handy back home.
It had been a while since you had come through Cheraw but you do remember a way around it. It was not that big of a city but you remember it having an airport at the outside of town. You could either run east over to Bennetsville or go through Cheraw.
Time and fuel and safety. These are all the things that you are calculating in your head, hoping to make the right decision. Time and fuel tells you to blast through Cheraw but safety tells you to go through Bennetsville. The attitude in your head agrees with time and fuel and you decide come hell or high water that you were gonna be home inside of 3 hours. You make the right hand fork down highway 9 and put it in the wind hard and heavy to Cheraw.
You see the "Welcome to Cheraw" sign and the social activities sign that states how they have a lions club, kiwanis club and all other kinds of cultural clubs. Then you see the speed limit sign that tells you that 35 m.p.h. is the Maximum speed, how it's strictly enforced and controlled by radar and blah blah blah.
Seeing h0w there isn't any cop cars that are running at the present time you are not too awfully worried about breaking the speed limit. You would check your speedometer if it was working but with no electronics you just have to give it an educated guess. The closest you could estimate was around 70. That was in 13th gear running about 1350 r.p.m.
You come up towards the center of town and around a long sloping curve. The road is four lane thru town with a median, parking on the side and large sidewalks and no trees to speak of. The non-operating red lights seem eerie to you but so does the lack of any other traffic. You have seen some folks standing around store fronts but up to this point not many. They were all surprised to see anything moving and would probably have loved to ask you some questions. You are sure that they are as just in the dark as you are so you feel no need or urge to stop and chit chat.
Up ahead you do see the same scenario as before in the previous town. People camped out in front of the local grocery store making the most out of all the food that was inside. Lots of folks had carts loaded up and were pushing them away. Probably out to their homes or taking them to other folks that needed it. Maybe some of them could be good Samaritans and be bringing the much needed suppies to hospital or local nursing home. You thought that would be nice and you let that though run through your head for a bit. It gives you a bit of comfort to think that something nice might just be happening instead of all the bad things you have witnessed.
Anyway, you have business to take care of. The end of town is in sight and you are glad that no one has seen fit to try to stop you. Just as you had thought. Nobody was wanting to chase down or try to stop a speeding semi-truck.
A bridge at the end of town more or less signals the end of the commercial district and after you cross it the sides of the roads turn into fields and pastures with barns and farmhouses.
About 25 miles on down the road the terrain starts to flatten out even more. You push it a little harder and you estimate your speed to be around 85. You have gotten over to highway 15. Staying on 52 would have ran you into Darlington and Florence. This little by-pass would run you across 152 but north of Darlington and well away from any populace.
Up ahead, about 10 miles away from that intersection something catches your eye. Outside of a small cottage, a woman is standing out in the road. Beside her are two small children and both of them seem distressed. She was wearing a white dress but was now mostly red. She is blocking the road by standing directly in the center of it and waving her arms frantically while jumping up and down.
You wonder what to do. What if this is the very same thing that is happening to your wife and children right now? What if they are in harms way? These thoughts are combating themselves in your mind because if you stop, you are taking away from your family if they are in trouble and possibly putting them in danger. Also if you stop how could you help. As far as you know there isn't any hospitals you could take them too. Shouldn't you just count them as casualties and keep moving? On the other hand, wouldn't you want someone to help your wife and kids if they were in this kind of predicament? What would happen if they didn't get out of the way. Would you just run them over?
Wait a minute!!! Did you just actually think that? Have you become that kind of person too?
Now you are deeply ashamed of yourself and you begin the process of gearing down to see if you can offer any assistance.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Catastrophy of the highest order..part seven

"Welcome to South Carolina" the sign says. It also states how it's the 'palmetto state'. "Too bad palmetto's aren't edible" you think to yourself. You are a bit hungry. You had planned on asking the store owner for some food to take with you on your trip home but whoever did the owner in took care of that idea. Having food available has never seemed to be a problem before. Not in this country anyway. There has always been a place to grab something to eat. All you had to do was pull in a place, exchange some currency for some substanance and be on your way. The proprieters were always happy to see you and provide you with this very basic necessity. " I guess you never miss the water till the well runs dry" you think. Then you think about water. As you keep thinking you think that it might bode you well not to think to damn much and concentrate on gettin home.
You see a wide spot on the side of the road up ahead and pull over to check out your cabinets. Not that there were gonna be anyone speeding past you but you don't think about that. Better safe than sorry. You know that you had some cans of stuff put away but you couldn't remember exactly what they were. You find a half full (or could it be half empty now) 32 oz water bottle from a few days ago. A small can of diced peaches with a pop-top catches your eye so you pop the top and swallow the whole can down in two gulps. You take the cap off the water bottle and turn it up to kill it but you catch yourself about halfway through. "Better conserve it" you think "Not sure where the next bit of water might be coming from". So you cap it off and place it beside your seat. You now think about how you need to protect it. You wonder how something so simple as a bottle of water now has gotten all of your attention. You suddenly realize that the water bottle and the small amount of what it holds is probably worth way more than money right now. How strange it is that your values can change so quickly. You are thinking your way into a frenzy but it's problems that will quickly be needing to be addressed. You just need some time to think is all.
Before you take off you grab a stick off of the side of the road and stick it down in the tank to take a measure of the fuel level. The bypassing of the E.C.M. has left all the guages, lights and warning buzzers unworking and that included the fuel gauge. The stick comes back with about 12 inches of the bottom of it wet. Plenty of fuel to get on home and then some. With both of the tanks registering that much you should have at least 60 gallons and that should take you around 350-400 more miles.
You check the map and you see that there will be some populated places that you will be traveling through. You think about the way those people at the grocery store looked at you and the folks in the wagon. You are still glad that you have decided to bring along the trailer. A larger vehicle is more intimidating than just a bobtail. It also helps with the stability and the weight. You are thinking that if you have to ram your way through a road block or run a barrage of bullets, the trailer will protect your head and also add to the momentum to push you through and past obstacles. If you can speed through the bigger towns and cities quickly and in a big ass hurry you will have taken them totally by surprise. Seeing how there is no fuel available the chances of someone chasing you and burning all of theirs up would be slim to none.
So, this is your plan of attack then. Hit the towns hard and fast and get on by. No one needs to know where your going, where you have been or what you are hauling and you don't plan on stopping from here on in. Home is now only three hours away if you push it and you can't wait to get there.
With a determind look on your face and a little bit of an attitude, you release the brakes and commence to lay that hammer down.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Catastrophy of the highest order..part six

It was around 9 o'clock and you were making pretty good time rolling down the four lane. Out in the country like this even on a regular day traffic was real sparse. You think that you'll be home in a short short.
What you didn't know, and what you don't have the resources to find out, is that a electro-magnetic pulse had hit the U.S. A terrorist group had detonated nuclear warheads 100 miles above the earth's atmosphere in 3 critical locations. The results were that it knocked out the power grid immediately and fried all the electronic components in every piece of machinery and communication device. There is no way that you will be able to find out the horrors that it has caused or is about to cause. A few of the passenger jets that were above the atmosphere weren't affected but the control towers were. Some of them landed safely without any ground guidance but others simply ran out of fuel trying to find a clearing or an open runway and crashed. Others that were in the process of taking off or landing had their guidance and control electronics compromised and just crashed. No rescue vehicles were able to respond because they were rendered useless also. A lot of tragedy had gone on during the first few hours of the crisis. What also happened and what was happening was the people in this country who were insulin dependent had their medication compromised. Insulin loses it's shelf life after 1 day from not being refrigerated. At this very moment thousands of people were going into diabetic shock and not recovering from it. These and lots of other sad stories are things that you don't know or realize right now. If you put thought to the matter you'd probably figure it out. However there was no way that Ann Curry or Matt Lauer could pass the information on to you or anyone else. What you also didn't know was that the power grid wasn't going to come back on for a long time. It was going to take about 3 years to even establish one again and that would be just for the metropolitan areas. Maybe they will redesign the grid to become pulse-resistant in the next application. But right now at this moment, you are left to figure that out all on your own. Could the U.S. be under attack right now? How could you know if it was or not. What about all the people in nursing homes? Who would bring them their medication or food? How could they survive without care, medication and nourishment? Thinking of death makes you wonder what or who would take care of the bodies that are bound to be piling up. There most certainly won't be any ambulances to carry anyone away nor will there be any morticians in business if they couldn't be paid to carry out an internment. There is now not any money to be had and even if they were, what good would it do you? No one is going to want money now. What they will be wanting is food, shelter and water. How are they going to get those items? There is already rioting in the bigger cities and the shelves in every grocery store within a 50 mile radius is bare to the walls. Employees of the stores had been killed and ran over top of. Even some of the looters who had made off with the goods were killed for the food they had just stolen. It was bad and getting worse quickly.
You wonder about your sustainability and how you will be providing for your family. These are thoughts that are boggling your mind as your continue your drive home.
Just as you wonder about how you are going to be taking care of your family, you see some folks up ahead taking care of theirs.
A group of people had set up a make-shift camp in a parking lot of a grocery store and had gas grills and coolers set up all around. There were a few all terrain quad cycles, a few tables and chairs set out and a few tents. It was obvious that they were taking care of the food supply that had been in side the I.G.A. supermarket. That was probably a pretty good idea to cook all the perishable meats before they spoiled because that would make them last longer. You also notice that there is a camp-fire set up right in the middle of the lot with some of the meat on a type of a pyre. You hope that it's meat out of the store and not from some other source. As you draw closer you notice that there are some armed spotters in each of the corners of the parking lot. Two members of the community are each setting on a quad-runner making a total of eight of them. You guess that this party is by invitation only and you're not invited. Everyone gives you a curious look but no one is threatening you and you pass quickly on by.
"So that's what I have to look forward to later on" you think. You wonder how close knit the community you have just passed will become once the food in the grocery story reaches a very low level. Only time will tell you think.
You are still thinking about all of this and how it's going back home.. You are now getting ready to cross the state line into South Carolina. It's eleven o'clock.

Catastrophy of the highest order..part five

You are not traveling that fast and you contemplate stopping. In just a short millisecond your brain tells you that in that big truck you are a pretty small target. The wagon is halfway off the shoulder of the road and about 100 yards ahead. You see the five guys in the back standing up and leveling off their shotguns and rifles at you. "This isn't going to get me home" you rationalize so you do something totally out of character. After all, the need to get home and protect your family is getting to become all consuming.
You squat down in the seat, lay on the air horn, veer over onto the shoulder where the tractor and wagon are and slam down on the throttle. The expressions on the faces of the men quickly changed from a "Better not mess with me" kind of look to a "I just crapped my pants full" kind of look.
I guess if you are an ant and you see an elephant start to step on you, you try to get out of the way. That seemed to be the case now as you see the guys coming out of their temporary state of shock and start jumping out of the wagon and heading towards the field. You turn the wheel sharply back onto the road, barely missing the rear end of the wagon and tractor. One of the guys had jumped out towards the center of the road and you just miss him as he scrambles out of the way. You check your rear view as you round the next curve but you notice that they are not as interested in stopping you as they were before.
"Great", you think "Now we have highwaymen out on the roads already". You wonder if society has already fell and you just don't know it yet. You have been one to always have faith in man-kind thinking that the good qualities of man would always win and come shining through during any kind of a crisis. This worries you further now that you have personally witnessed the failing of the so called "good" in man in just two short hours. Now you are wishing that you had brought one of your guns from home on this trip. You never have "carried" while working because you have never seen a need to. Now the feel of your smith and wesson in your hand would sure be comforting. You have several guns at home and you think about how you have shown Carl, your twelve year old how to shoot the 410 shotgun. He was pretty adept on the use and safety of guns. He had even shot a 12 gauge during a turkey shoot for thanksgiving last year and had scored pretty high. Missy, your wife, was also pretty good with her little .32 cal. As a part of a community push back home they had recently bought a gun cabinet. Missy also had gone through a gun safety and a concealed carry class offered by the local gun club. Now you are so glad that she had the knowledge that it brought with it. Contemplating these lines of thought brings some comfort to you but you are still very aware of the perils of being out in the country like they were. One of the things about being where they were was that they had some good neighbors around. He thought about Bill and Kay along with their son Joshua who lived just a half-mile down the street. Good honest folks who had a small patch of land where you and the family would visit during the spring to buy some vegetables they grew. Missy knew she could go to them if anything arose that she couldn't handle while he was out driving.
Just a few more miles and the road turned into a four lane. The road was clear of cars but you are thinking that it's because whatever had happened had done so in the middle of the night and they weren't that many folks out driving. Thankful for this, you are able to push it just a little harder. Home was about another 275 miles away....

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Catastrophy of the highest order..part four

You wake up with the sound of an engine running. A two cycle from what you can make of it and you're intrigued at the source. You pull the curtains of your cab and you see a small enduro motorcycle pulling into the truck stop. It's still very early and the light from the eastern sunrise is rising behind some clouds sitting low on the horizon. The rider looks like a middle aged man dressed in jeans and a chambray shirt with no helmet. He cuts the engine and walks towards the store. There is an eerie silence this morning. You fell asleep last night with the hum of the generator used to keep the store's coolers running. This morning there is no sound at all. You think that maybe someone didn't fill up the fuel tank for the generator and had let it run out during the night. Whatever the case, you toss on your clothes and head over to the store to maybe get a cup of coffee before you leave.
You are not prepared for the scene that is now playing out before you. The owner has been tied up and his throat has been cut open. The man who rode in on the motorcycle is standing over him with his hands on his hips. He turns when he hears you enter and gasp at the sight. He quickly reaches down and pulls his gun from a holster that you couldn't know he had because of the low light this morning. It's pointed right at you and he yells for you to stand still. Your hands go up and your mouth drops open as the man asks who you are. You explain to him the circumstances of you being there and how you have been here for two days now. He informs you that he is the sheriff of this jurisdiction as he lowers his gun and inquires what you might have seen or heard last night. You tell him about the meal you had last night and how everything was fine when you went to bed. You notice that the generator is now gone and you tell him how it's not here now. He asks if you can tell if anything else is askew or missing and you tell him that you're not sure.
You can't believe that you were that close to a murder. You wondered how that happened in such a short time frame with everyone so near? Being that close to a situation like that has made you sick to your stomach and you go outside to the nearest trash can to heave your guts out and to try to comprehend what just happened.
After just a few minutes the sheriff comes out to join you. You know that this is a small closely knit town and the sheriff brings that out in the conversation. He can't possibly fathom how any of the folks in his town or area could possibly commit such a heinous crime against the owner of the store. He had given credit to folks who were hard up and was a leader in the small community.
One of the drawbacks however was that this town was 99 miles from Petersburg, VA and about 75 miles away from Raleigh, NC. It would take gas to get to one of those towns and without any power, the gas pumps wouldn't be working. Someone had been desperate to get their hands on that generator, but how did they get it and what did they come and get it in. Who could have been that desperate? These were questions that the sheriff asked of you but you knew you wouldn't be around to find out. Now more than ever you wanted to get home or at least somewhere away from here.
You have some questions for the sheriff now. Has anyone contacted him or does he have any idea what is going on with the power outage and the electronics not working. He informs you that he knows just about as much as you do. You tell him your plans about heading home and he asks that you have a safe trip and wishes you the best. The sheriff has found some keys in the owner's pocket and he takes them to lock up the store to keep the crime scene from being contaminated. He gets back on the motorcycle and rides back to the station to maybe gather some equipment and someway to transport it back to the store. Most of the other drivers have already gotten up and left and there are no people in sight.
Your thoughts turn to the diesel that is in the refrigerated trailers tanks and how you have decided that no one is going to miss it. You find a bucket and a hose and go to work on filling the tanks on your truck.
After about an hour you're ready to roll out, confident that you will be making it home soon. You decide to take your trailer with you even though it's only loaded with paper towels and napkins. You think how you never know how things might come in handy.
You let off the parking brake and start shifting gears out of the truck stop and start headed north on I-85. It's only 14 miles to the small county highway to where you decided to start heading south.
Within the first few miles you see a couple of cars parked on the side of the road, doors open and abandoned with no passengers. This sight becomes more common the further up you go and then you take the exit off of the interstate. It's a good stretch of road until the first signs of civilization appears. A small town comes into view and you notice how nothing or no-one is moving. A few folks are standing around and you notice the look on their faces as you pass by. It's a look of wonderment and puzzlement but you don't feel like even slowing down. After the sight you saw this morning you have a new penchant for staying safe. Being in a semi-truck with a trailer behind it gives you a sense of security that nothing will get in your way that you can't handle if you wanted to.
It's been two whole days since the event and you are thinking that things probably haven't gotten that serious yet. You hope that when you get further into the state that you will find out that things have returned to normal and it was just a localized happenstance back there in Virginia. As you cross the North Carolina line about ten miles later you know that things haven't gotten any better.
Ahead, sitting in the middle of the highway was a john deere tractor with a hay wagon behind it. In the hay wagon was a group of men. The only thing menacing about them were the guns they were carrying. The most menacing thing about the guns were that they were pointed at you and they were motioning you to pull over....

Monday, February 13, 2012

Catastrophy of the highest order..part three...

Now the day is winding down. You have given considerable thought on what to do from here. Seems like there is no news at all coming from anywhere and the fact that there has been no traffic out on 85 has you worried to tears. Your home is about 300 miles away on the Georgia coast and you are worried about your family. If you dropped your trailer at the truck stop you'd probably have plenty of fuel to make it there. Seeing how you have not heard from anyone it makes it pretty clear that it's what your'e going to do. You have mapped it out and your'e wondering if you need to avoid the big roads or stick to the two lane and four lane divided highways.
The few questions you have are what's going on with the rest of the world? How are your wife and kids doing? Why isn't anything working? That really puzzles you. You think for a bit and you wonder if the pay phones inside the truck stop are working. After all, they don't have chips in them but will they work without electricity?
You rush inside to try them out and grab a door handle of an old phone room booth. Hoping against hope you pick up the receiver and place it to your ear. There is a noise but it is not a dial tone. A pulsing buzz is traveling through the lines. It's almost like a busy signal but it's not a staccato tone but a gradual high and low hum. You hit the keypad and you hear the tones registering but nothing is happening. At least you tried but your worries have only increased. Maybe you shouldn't have even tried that.
It's going on towards evening and the dusk has started to come around. You wonder if it would be a wise thing to start out in the evening or wait until morning. A few of the guys have already left the truck stop but there is no way to get in touch with them to find out what might be going on. Even after the trucks got started the CB radios still wouldn't work. The fear of the unknown has given you the heebie-jeebies but you know the smart thing to do is not to panic. Keeping your head in this situation is the best thing to do you think.
You go back inside the building and the owner offers you some food and coffee. You accept his offer and go back into the kitchen to make a plate from the various pots of provisions offered. The owner knows that the food in the coolers won't last indefinitely and that the fuel for the generators and the gas for the stoves will eventually run out so he might as well make use of it while it's still good. After all a lot of the food came from the truckers who had stopped in to take their sleep break.
The mechanic has shown everyone how to bypass their ecm's and you have yours running. The only thing you need to do is decide on a route and you can be home before too long or so you hope. You check the route and decide on the smaller state and local highways. You think that if the electricity has gone out that the chances are there would be a lot of mayhem going on in the larger cities. Not that Raliegh Durham was a sprawling metropolis but it would be better to go around it No use taking un-neccessary chances...
You walk back out to your truck and it's getting dark outside. It's overcast so there is no light from the moon and you suddenly wish you had brought your flashlight. You find your truck and you climb in to get your rest for the next days drive. It should be an interesting one you think.
You wonder about the fuel level in your tanks. Do you have enough to make it back? Would someone miss the fuel that was left in the reefers? After all one of the truckers left his trailer there unprotected but that wouldn't be like you to steal anything. You wonder what has gotten into you and your thoughts. Where else would you get fuel from? Will there be any other truck stops open? Will your a.t.m. card work? What if you get stuck somewhere and you can't use your money to buy any food either? You are pretty sure that the world as you know it has changed. You wonder what tomorrow will bring. You hope it will bring you safely home to your family.
For the first time in a long time you lock your doors as usual but you also wrap the seat belts through the door handles and tie them shut....




Sunday, February 12, 2012

Catastrophy of the highest order..part two...

It's the next day and it seems like nothing has changed. Still no word on what has happened to the power or the trucks. A few drivers have gathered around a make-shift campfire made from old pallets. The discussion was on what the plan for the day was gonna be. It was obvious that no word was gonna come through from anyone's company or broker on what to do with the loads they were carrying. Drivers were talking about home and how far away it was and how to get there. You thought about your's and was wondering how you could at least get to a large city and see about things. The owners of the truck stop had come by to assess the damage the lack of power was doing to the food inside the restaurant. The mechanic from the shop had taken apart a gas pump and hooked up his generator to it and had lined up a bunch of gas cans to fill up once he got it working. He had by-passed all the electronic equipment and had it straight wired to the pumps motor. He had every one's attention as the pump came to life and he was able to fill up the gas cans. Now the plan was to use the generator to power up the coolers inside the restaurant to keep the rest of the food from spoiling and it worked. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as they saw that there were at lease some provisions for the next few days or so. The reefer drivers agreed to put the rest of their food inside the coolers to keep it stocked up in case they were gonna be stuck there for a while.
Now that they had some power the owner of the truck stop fired up a coffee pot and passed it on to everyone who wanted some. Most drivers were puzzled about how a generator could run but not their motors on their trucks and what about that old chevy running down the road yesterday?
This brought a remark from a driver who stated that he had heard about a situation like this before. He had read a few years ago about a solar flare that would cause a Electro- magnetic pulse. It would attach itself to the power lines and take the power grid down. Also in the process it would burn up and fry every electronic micro-chip it came into contact with, thus taking out all cell phones, laptops and any other power source that was controlled by electronics.
This brought about a discussion on how to by-pass the ecm's in the trucks so the drivers could get going again. The mechanic said that it could be done but that it would take a little experimenting on his part to figure it out.
This revelation brought a great relief to everyone there. The mechanic said he had an old mack that still ran so he was gonna go try to manipulate the ecm on it and to see how to get the other trucks running.
A few drivers followed the mechanic to offer assistance and to maybe learn how to get their truck going again. The rest of them and you stayed to discuss the ramifications of what might have happened.
The discussion turned to the reports of how that would take out the navigation systems for airplanes and how they would just fall to the ground. The power and back up generators for all the hospitals and rest homes and how the grid would take years to come back on-line. This was a very sobering talk and made everyone wonder what kind of world they would be facing when they finally got going again...
It was 68 miles or so to Petersburg, VA going up 85 and around 190 or so down to Charlotte, NC. After a little bit, everyone else went outside and turned their attention to the mechanic and his efforts. It was about 12:00 on a wednesday....

Friday, February 10, 2012

Catastrophy of the highest order..part one

You wake up like always but this time you notice that the power is turned off. You are out in your truck you notice that the engine has quit. You look at your cellphone to get an idea of the time but it's not working. You reach for the ignition switch to turn over the motor but nothing happens. Seems the batteries have died. You look over at the other trucks and none of them are running either. Some of the reefer drivers are trying to start their units back up but to no avail. Seems they have also "bit the dust". A few drivers are milling around in the parking lot so you join them. No one seems to know what is going on. You look out on the roadway and you notice a couple of trucks have actually just stopped on the roadway and a few cars also. No traffic is moving at all and it's eerily quiet all around.


You decide to try to use the pay phone in the truck stop so as you are walking that way you notice that it is closed. The shift on duty has left and placed a sign on the door that says "Closed until further notice".


Ok..so no bathroom and no shower today and you think further on to how you will have no coffee. Now things are getting serious here.


Now your thoughts fall to your family. Are they ok? How can you get in touch with them? All kinds of thoughts are racing through your mind and you are worried. How can you get back to them? What mode of transportation will you use? Do they have electricity? Do they have food and water? Does their car work? Now you have worked yourself up into a state of agitation and you feel helpless. You are not sure what to do or where to start. There is really no place around to walk to and there is nothing to do. It's mid-morning and things are hitting you that you'd rather not think about.


Why is there no traffic? What are you going to do for your next meal? How long until the power comes back on? You and everyone else in the truck stop is at a complete loss of what to do. No one has any answers at all. One driver went over to the fuel island to get some water from the spigot but nothing came out. The doors to the store are still locked and there are no employees in sight. You and the others didn't know that the employees had closed up in the middle of the night after the power went out and walked home to check on their families.


No one else's cell phones are working. No laptops will fire off and no wi-fi signal is available even if they did. But you don't know that. What is going on????


So, you and the other drivers sit there and try to figure it out. One of them has a few supplies in his truck and a few of the reefer guys have some food. One driver is hauling a load of water but none of them want to break any of it out until they get word back from someone on what to do. The frozen food is thawing out and will soon start to become just cool and over the next couple of days will become inedible. A few days after that and you won't be able to stand the smell of it.


Town is a few miles away and the silence in the world is getting to you. No planes overhead, no motors running, no electric motors, lights or signs are on. It's a spooky feeling. One driver has a gas grill and he is heating up some water for his coffee. He offers some up to you and you are grateful for it. There are around 35 of you in the truck stop and everyone is thinking of what to do.


One driver says he was up late last night and saw a flash of light off to the west and right after that was when everything went blank. So you and all the other drivers thought that it might have been a power plant going kaput. How did that affect the trucks though? It's getting around lunchtime and the sound of an engine finally breaks the silence. Everyone turns to see an old 1966 chevy driving past at a high rate of speed. It goes right past the intersection of the truck stop and veers onto the interstate squealing tires and hauling ass towards the north. This puzzles you and the others because here is a motor that is working. Why won't the trucks start and where is everyone else at?
Some of the trucks had good batteries and the lights on them work but nothing is starting up. Still no phones, no internet, no tv and no electricity. You are still in the dark and getting more worried with every passing minute.
The heat from the day has thawed the frozen meat in three of the reefers and the drivers broke out some of it. A couple of guys had a grill and before long supper was ready for everyone. There were still about 35 of you there and the clerk had come back to check on things along with the manager. Seems like everything in the store was ok, but with no electric and no water they couldn't offer the drivers any showers or sell them anything, much less pump any fuel. There were no trucks needing any and no cars coming by to fill up. It was one of the strangest days you can ever remember but it was going to get a lot worse before it got any better. You just didn't know it yet....