The laughter was odd, reassuring in a way that hasn’t been heard for the last 18 months. And what’s with a campfire…reaches inside of us mere humans and gives us a sense of security and enjoyment in equal measures. I had to pause those thoughts in my head for a moment, there were folks missing, that was a cold reminder of just how bad life can get in a very short period of time.

The solitary moment of sadness was broken by yet another made-up story by Mexican David that had everyone laughing, and a knee slap or two to boot. As I glanced up I looked directly into the eyes of Kim, she was staring right back at me, no smile, no knee slapping…just a knowledgeable nod of understanding. Then her subtle gesture of a faint grin that spoke to her knowing what I was thinking. She always knows what I am thinking, especially the darker moments of reflection.

About the nicknames…many have them…all for a reason. There are folks here in our little community that share first names. To keep everyone straight we adopted nicknames where there was conflict/confusion. Each person got to adopt their own nickname…some are humorous, some make you stop and gasp…at least in the old days. The old days of ‘woke’ and ‘political correctness’ are long gone, at least here. We have returned to being real people that can laugh at each other and ourselves. It is far more natural that the old BS that fringe groups tried to force on people. Force doesn’t work for long.

Mexican David was already into another of his stories when the next security group quietly got up and headed to the OP’s. Everyone’s heads immediately popped up and saw the movement, several hands started for their sidearms, Carl started to lean over for his AR. It was absolutely quiet as if we were all sitting in church during the benediction. Sad to think how much life had changed…but it had and we were all different people now, more primal for sure. You always couldn’t be too far from the edge.

Mexican David started his story back up and you could feel the tension leave the 27 people sitting around the fire. Maria threw another piece of old juniper into the fire, a cloud of sparks quickly rose and scattered into the cool night air. Several of the older guys, myself included, hooted and covered our eyes, Rene started to frantically brush at his jacket although not a single spark had landed on him. Maria just lowered her eyes and slowly shook her head. Times change, men don’t, we never grow up. There was the immaturity and male humor even in these times…human nature.

Several minutes later Cracker David and his two team members, Ashley and Sam came slowly walking back into the ring of dancing light from the campfire. Then leaned their AK’s up against the deck, grabbed plates, and began to heap them up with ever present potatoes, carrots, bread, and the most highly prized of all, Venison burgers! The bacon was long gone and I am sure Cracker David, my son, will give me hell about it later about not getting any.

Everyone was so cool about tonight and security. Each homestead left at least two people behind after we agreed that they would have their own campfire tomorrow night. And Cracker would never know I held back some bacon for them, then again he might find out. Oh boy!

Each homestead crew was also taking turns at our OP’s keeping watch over us. They were changing about every 20 – 30 minutes to make sure everyone got a plate of food and time around the fire. We indiscriminately varied the timing. Man, paranoia or what! The changing of the guard would continue until the gathering broke-up and folks headed back home to the somewhat boring routine that had developed lately. It was kind of nice to have it boring for the last several months, although everyone had been busying harvesting, drying, canning, freezing, and generally getting the food prepared to last as long as possible. If we got lucky all that stored food would last till next harvest. But I, along with most of the others, knew it wouldn’t. It just wasn’t enough…there would be hungry folks before next harvest. But the young kids wouldn’t go hungry…we all made a pledge to that! It was bad enough for them to grow up in these rugged conditions…we won’t let them go hungry.

Even as well prepared as we were, our bountiful harvest wouldn’t last more than a 6 – 9 months at most. Luckier than most, we still had dozens of cases of food stored away from before “the fall.” I had to chuckle just a bit, “the fall” is what we called the collapse of America. They had it planned all along, but it was not a fall or a collapse that they had conspired to see take place…it was a fundamental transformation they envisioned. But they got their butts handed to them…and then the actual collapse hit. Then again, not all of history has been written, maybe they planned on this collapse. And who would have guessed it would start on a Thursday.

Kim handed me another glass of water, the lemonade was long gone. Folks drank that up real quick, the flavor and sugar was simply too irresistible. After a sip of my water I about spit it out, she turned around and smiled as she walked back to her portion of the log across the fire. I would have to ask here where, or how, she could have possibly got her hands on Pepsi. More importantly, how much more did she have! Yeah, I was a Pepsiholic before the fall.

A slew of bad economic news had been reported the week before the fall…for a change. The Bennett administration had been able to lock-up the media for years keeping the terrible economy crap out of the spotlight. It all finally started to crumble beyond even their control. But once the flood gates opened, it just got worse by the day, and speculation over that last weekend was cataclysmic. A handful of banks went under during that weekend…and that was just the start of the avalanche.

And there was good ole Uncle Joe Bennett on the TV both Saturday and Sunday telling everyone that everything was fine…naming every reason under the sun that times were actually good. BS flag!!!

Sunday he even threw in that all bank customers would be fully protected by the FDIC and no one would lose any money. Then the zinger hit…Sunday night he took a couple of questions from reporters. The last one asked if there was a plan to handle all of this. And that is when Uncle Joe slipped up.

President Bennett said that their plan was to handle everything that was coming and they had the plan in the works for a long time so not to worry. I think you could hear 100milion people collectively gasp at the same time…they asked the same question, “What was coming?”

His Press Secretary whisked him off stage so fast he almost stumbled. But then again, we were all used to him stumbling and bumbling, tripping and falling, trembling and…well, generally being a very feeble old fart…a very old, old fart with dementia.

Then 7am Monday morning brought about a whole new world. I wouldn’t call it a brave new world like the book of that name, just a new world…a very ugly new world. Before the stock markets started trading for the week another handful of banks announced that the FDIC was taking them into receivership. Immediately after that MSNBC was predicting that the S&P 500 would open down about 2%. Man were they wrong!

Within two minutes of opening the S&P was down 7%, hitting the first 15-minute trading halt trigger point. When trading started back up again after 15 minutes, it crashed to the 13% drop point causing another 15-minute halt in trading. At that point I was watching TV and witnessing what was happening…and that sinking feeling was gnawing away at my gut. Then the trading started back up once more after the second triggered halt.

Taking almost 10 minutes to hit the final trigger for the day, the market shut down at the -20% free fall point. Then it got strange…Bennett was on TV in a nationwide address almost immediately to reassure the public that everything was fine, no need to panic, The Fed wouldn’t let the economy or the markets crash. He wanted the public to “rest assured” that the FDIC would not let any bank fail…everyone would be made whole. Yeah, all of that raised some serious questions in my mind. My cell phone started to ding off the hook with incoming text messages, I ignored all of them.

I finished the last of my incredibly good Pepsi, glanced over at Kim just to see her give me that face…while she shook her head “no” real slowly. I kept staring at her hoping her stealthy reply would change. She just kept slowly giving me the “no” head shake…and added the “no” with her mouth. No it was I guess…once again her reading my mind. Dang, she is a good looking woman, a woman younger than my daughter. A daughter who I didn’t even know if she was still alive or not. I had to stop myself from slipping into a mental darkness thinking of her and the grand-kids…one day I would know, but it wouldn’t be tonight.

Anne had a very successful real estate broker in St. George and was living the high life to be sure. Her brokerage didn’t really suffer till the month before the fall, people hoping against hope that all would be fine and return to normal. I didn’t know it at the time that one of those messages I ignored during the market crash Monday was hers asking me what I thought. I could have talked to her that day if I had answered or even called back. Now it was too late, cell phones were a thing of the past. Well, at least to make calls, they were still good for music and pictures.

As soon as Joe the Clown (a.k.a. President) said “and God Bless America” at the end of his statement I clarified to myself a couple of questions…How was it he got on TV within 2 – 3 minutes of the stock market debacle to read a prepared statement? Then…why in the world was he talking about preventing a “crash” of either the markets or the economy? Just the thought of a President talking about a crash like that was no doubt going to cause exactly that! And it did.

Monday became known as “Bloody Monday” even worse than “Black Monday” back in October 1987. Then Tuesday… the “Suicide Tuesday” label stuck almost immediately to what happened the following day. At the opening bell the markets dropped 20% within a minute, and that shut it down for the rest of the day. While unknown at the time, later they estimated that about 1000 people committed suicide that day…all somehow related to the stock markets or banking industry. Banks had been harshly hit…well, more like a massacre. In two days the banking sector was down almost 75%…and Tuesday started the bank runs in earnest. Before noon, eastern time, there wasn’t a bank left open in the country…every single bank was closed tighter than a bank vault. Pun intended. And yup, the ATMs were all empty…or stolen.

President Bennett once again on TV in a nationwide broadcast urging “calm and confidence” that all was okay and that the federal government, in coordination with the FDIC and the Fed, had a plan that would ensure everything would be fine. I can remember at the time I told Laura this all seemed too organized…it was as if he was following a script. No, not for the speech, but for all of it…as if it was being carefully orchestrated. As if we were watching a great plan being unfolded before us. I didn’t know the half of it at the time…but I was on the right track.

I looked over and there sat Scott and Karen flames casting flickering firelight on their faces. They are a part of this history and thankfully they are still here to talk about it. They had it the worst of all…probably because they were the wealthiest of all of us. They had made it up here to their place the week everything was falling apart, but barely making it from the valley. At the time they had no idea how bad it would get for them and how quickly, they thought there place here was a place of safety. But we all pulled together and they were/are fine…hopefully. Now that was a crazy week when I look back on it!

At daylight Monday morning 2 months into this mess a representative from the county showed up with a Deputy. The pounded on Scott’s door nailing a notice to it like it was something out of a middle-ages movie scene. Scott was on them so fast they never even realized it. Scott had his AR pointed at them at face level, they Deputy started reaching for his Glock till he saw Karen pointing a shotgun at him through an open window. The Deputy wisely, although reluctantly, eased his hand away.

The long and short of it was the new “program” that the county was taking possession of all property over 40-acres. Of course the owners would be paid handsomely in the just announced FedNew currency. Scott made them take down the notice, the Deputy had to unload his Glock, throw away all the bullets from his mags before getting back into the nice shinny Sheriff’s Ford Explorer. Yeah, with the gasoline shortage it was nice to see that the county had plenty of gas to go around for their official business.

Over soup for lunch that day we had a planning session, I am glad we did. The next morning the County task force showed up with the BearCat. A long story short…by noon no more deputies showing up with BearCats to more people’s homes. And man, did it clarify why police departments should never had been given military armored vehicles! I guess everyone knew it was only a matter of time till militarized police turned against civilians…with their military equipment and gear. The county was now minus one BearCat and the new program was abruptly canceled. And not a single County Commissioner can be found anywhere for the last 12 months. Hummm…

I noticed Scott laughing and then put his arm around Karen as the flames flared up just a bit. She was giving him that look of love, even a little admiration thrown in. It was if they had been reborn that day so many months ago. Now, almost 1-1/2 years later they were tighter than ever, 4 “adopted” kids, a few cows roaming their pastures, and a great garden that anyone would be proud to claim. But it almost didn’t turn out that way. Thankfully we had solid people, a good plan…and a lot of luck. Theirs is just one of many stories…we all had one…some more than one.

The single most asked question these last 18 months…How did we ever let the government, at any level, get so powerful?

None of us has a good answer. I say it was a combination of treachery, complacency, and apathy. Others just call it being lazy and stupid as hell. But that has changed a lot in every aspect…at least around here.

Other Short Stories –

• 11:26am

 2009 - 2023 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved
No reproduction or other use of this content 
without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com
See Content Use Policy for more information.

Chapter 1 –

It was 11:26 exactly. 11:26am two weeks ago today, but it seems as if it could just as easily been a lifetime away. Strange to look back at it and realize that it was an event in history, we lived through history, we’re making history. Well, not everyone has, plenty of folks have already died, too many.

Wow, we were sitting there in church like hundreds of other Sundays over the years, till it wasn’t like any other Sunday. Now it will be considered history…if there will be anyone left to write about this history.

Just seconds before the lights went out, quite a few cell phones made the unmistakable emergency broadcast sound, and truly annoying during Sacrament Meeting. I would give anything for times to be that normal again and to be that annoyed again. But those days are long gone, very long gone. What is that term they used over the last ten years…the “new normal” in regards to anything that had changed, usually for the worse. Yeah, I think that Sunday was the worst of all changes for the last, say oh, 170 years or so.

Oddly, no one screamed when the lights went off. Of course Abby’s baby was crying, or should I say, still crying as she does every Sunday…for the last 5 months. She is 5 months old, quite a set of lungs on that kid. As soon as the lights went out the emergency broadcast alerts on the cell phones stopped. But, the building’s emergency lighting came on, the battery powered emergency lighting. And there was the first clue.

Folks gathered outside in the parking lot, mostly in family groups, young kids darting around between the cars playing some form of tag that I didn’t recognize. In this area of northern Arizona family groups could be pretty large. The big topic of discussion was no cellphone worked, none at all, no bars, no signal. That was the second clue.

A couple of families tried to start their trucks and SUV’s, the operative words being “tried,” clue number three. Although one older Chevy started right up and that family of 6 drove off without so much as a wave. About that time I started getting a really sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Had it been nighttime I would had already known what was happening, but it wasn’t even lunchtime yet. A strange thought popped into my head, I was a little hungrier than normal.

Gary was that final nail, well, technically it was the formation of planes Gary was pointing at. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Gary Click, former Army Sargent, began point up to the sky out to the northeast. After following his shaking index finger I too spotted the formation of four planes, very large planes. Having served in the Navy, and two of those four years spent on an aircraft carrier, I know what a flight of four bombers looks like, very large bombers. Within about 5 seconds 250+ people, including kids, were staring into the sky watching the jets and their rather beautiful contrails flowing out behind them. Those long lines of clouds stretching far back to the west against a bright clear blue sky. Then came the two small, very fast, contrails; those too I knew.

The two jets in the rear of the formation exploded into fireballs almost simultaneously. The two remaining bombers broke right and left respectively. I shouted to the girls and I told Lisa to run to the truck. I prayed quickly and clearly to please let my 2001 Ford start, please!

I was scanning for Lisa’s niece and her friend and I didn’t see them anywhere, I was ready to panic. And of course Lisa hadn’t started for the truck, she was tugging at my arm asking me “What?” I gave her our duress word and told her to get to the truck. She was halfway to the driver side within seconds. But the girls were still not within eyesight, nowhere…fear of those two girls missing swept over me. I remember clearly that at the time it flashed through my head that these were teenage girls and they wouldn’t be doing anything that I would expect.

Well technically, Grace was 12 and Lea had just turned 13 a couple months earlier. And Grace wasn’t Lisa’s niece, she was Lisa’s niece’s daughter, technically a grandniece. And Grace would be 13 in another month. In the “other” world two weeks ago, they were both teenagers to me. Now, they are guards, gardeners, cooks, patrol members, and so much more. I wish they were still irresponsible teenage girls full of giggles and mischief.

I found them a few minutes later in the church foyer whispering and carrying on; teenagers, kids, happy. I dashed that so fast their heads spun. I grabbed both, too harshly, by the arms and told them in my most stern and authoritative voice, “We are leaving now, don’t argue, don’t talk.” Both resisted, I barely noticed and I dragged them out the double glass doors and to the truck about 100’ away. Both were talking at me, I heard neither, I didn’t care what they had to say. We had to leave. Later I realized I had bruised their arms, not bad, but enough to make me feel bad.

Lisa had the truck started, the driver-side door open, the passenger front and read doors open; she stood by the passenger door. That’s where I took the girls. I spun both around, looked them both directly in the eyes and told them something terrible had happened, it was dangerous, and we had to leave right then and there…and for them to please not even say a word till we were on the road headed to the house.

I was thankful that for the last two weeks I had grown close to the girls. We had done a bunch of ATV/UTV exploring, hiked till I should have stopped about an hour before, and of course probably close to 20 hours of rifle and pistol shooting. And they really love to shoot! I am grateful they learned quickly and both were good beyond their years.

As I started to pull out of our parking space Matt came trotting up and he was more panic stricken as I had ever seen him. Actually, I had never seen him even excited let alone panicked. He hurriedly asked me if I could take him, his wife, and his three grandchildren home. His 1-year old company GMC crew-cab truck was now a massive paperweight, dead as a door-nail, but still pretty and freshly waxed. Matt is one of my very best friends, he hadn’t needed to ask. I told him to them to climb in the bed, hold on, and we would have them home in 10 minutes. It was aAlmost comical watching his 50+ year old wife and two of his granddaughters climb over the tailgate into the truck bed…dresses getting hiked up to get in…their Sunday best.

Within 10’ of exiting the parking lot both Grace and Lea both started talking at the same time. Then Lisa chimed in trying to talk over them. I shushed them to preserve my sanity and to help them understand what was happening by giving me a little space to talk. Five minutes later after having explained to them what an EMP is and the danger we were in, it was quiet, very quiet in that truck. As I looked in the review mirror I saw two stunned teenage faces, I couldn’t tell what they were thinking, if they were thinking at all. Lisa, well, she looked like she wanted to throw up. Me, my mind was racing a mile a minute, there was so many things to do…too many things to think about.

Matt and family climbed out of the truck, I shook his hand through my open window and we looked at each other as if we would never see each other again. Almost simultaneously we told each other to, “hang in there brother, hang in there.” I pulled away…would I ever see them again? That would be answered later.

We pulled out of his road to the roar of two A-10 jets screaming low about 5 miles to the east, they were as fast as I had ever seen a jet go and beyond loud. They looked as if they were going to land on the mesa that rose about 200’ above our valley’s floor directly in front of them. But they weren’t going to land and they evidently weren’t faster than the F15’s chasing them, certainly not faster than the missiles that hit both A-10’s one right after another. The F-15’s peeled away and took on the look of two missiles going straight up into the air. Both started spewing flares and what looked like a ton of tin foil in a cloud behind each. One of the F-15’s turned into a fireball the other disappeared into the high thin clouds.

That sick feeling that I mentioned earlier…yeah, I just wanted to throw-up, I knew what was happening. It was then I realized that Grace and Lea were crying and screaming at the same time. Lisa had a 1000-yard stare. I tuned everything out, stepped hard on the gas pedal, and headed for the safety of home. Home was the only chance we had to be safe and I knew no one was coming to save us. This man-made disaster had been building since Uncle Joe had been elected President two years earlier. Now the United States was at war…at war with itself.

There was a note stuck to my gate, I could see it from 150’ away before I even turned onto our road. But there was no way I was going to stop and retrieve it, that would be a perfect way to ambush us. No, everything was different; I have to be different. We have to become more primitive, more survival oriented, more situationally aware…the world had changed 30 minutes earlier. The real question at the time was…how bad had it gotten? Now, two weeks later, we know, I wish I didn’t know.

We pulled into the parking area of our “glamstead” and I turned off the truck. I wondered at the time when would we use the truck again and would the next EMP disable our truck. Obviously the EMP that struck less than an hour earlier was high enough in the atmosphere and far enough away that we only caught the tail end of it…kinda like the left overs. At least that is what I hoped. The solar system would tell the real story for us, and whether we would now be back in the 1850’s or not.

Lisa and the girls headed for the house, I headed to the utility room praying the solar system was operational. Habit took over and when I was walking into the room I just normally and without thinking flipped the light switch on…LIGHTS!

So the fact that we had lights meant the solar system was operational…thank goodness! Within 60 seconds I had looked over the system, scanned the 5” computer screen on the Victron Color Control…everything was performing as if nothing had happened. And that told me a bigger story.

Since the power went out in town, just 5 miles away meant the EMP strike was close enough to hit utility company power lines somewhere in the state. And that mega-voltage traveled to the substations and transformers in town blowing them up and killing power. I don’t know for sure but I imagine that the outage was wide-spread enough, but I don’t know the extent of it. However, I did know that it would be months at the earliest before any power was coming in through the utility company again, maybe much longer…as in years longer. But I knew all that speculation would have to wait…time to work the problem…go over the checklists and get geared-up was the only thing on my mind. Well that, and a wife plus two very scared teenage girls.

Other Short Stories –

• more coming

 2009 - 2023 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved
No reproduction or other use of this content 
without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com
See Content Use Policy for more information.