Countdown to Armageddon Read online

  She was always cautious not to buy anything which had to be refrigerated. That would come later. The first project on her list of things to do was to build a food supply at the compound, that would get them through their first few months if the EMPs hit in the fall. They reasoned that if the power went out in the late summer or fall, it would be April before they could plant subsistence crops. And late the following summer before they could be harvested. The Walmart food was to keep them alive in the interim.

  And if they had time to grow their crops and put them aside before the power went out? Well, that was okay too. As Joyce told Scott, having too much food was much better than not having enough. If they didn’t need the Walmart food initially, they could eat it later on before it expired, canning their home grown crops for later use.

  After two months of shopping at Walmart, Joyce had filled up one of the extra bedrooms with canned and dry foods, sorted and marked with their expiration dates. They were arranged so that the items expiring first were located on the top and front of each stack. That would ensure nothing spoiled before it was eaten.

  Once the dry stock was assembled, Joyce went on to her second project. She’d helped her grandmother and then her mother can fruits and vegetables when she was a little girl growing up in Lubbock. She remembered it as being fun.

  She found out that from an adult’s perspective, especially when canning on a large scale, it was actually a lot of work.

  But she still enjoyed it.

  And she learned that she could can not just fruits and vegetables, but also cooked meats and boiled eggs as well. So for an additional three months, she continued her frequent visits to Walmart. Only this time the back of her SUV held eight large coolers. She filled some of them with whole chickens, prime ribs, beef and pork roasts, and various sausages. Others were filled with a wide variety of fresh produce.

  She went to Walmart twice a week now, and two days a week she spent at the compound, baking and canning her haul from the previous day. After three months she had literally hundreds of quart jars of anything and everything. When the space she’d set aside in the basement was finally full, she said she’d finally had enough and vowed never to can anything again.

  Of course she knew better. If Scott was right about the solar storms and the EMPs, she’d spend the rest of her life in the compound. During the warm weather months they’d be growing and harvesting crops. And she’d be canning a good portion of the crops for the winter months. But for now she was just tired of it.

  Her third project wasn’t quite as much work. She visited Walmart again, to buy two hundred one pound blocks of cheese. Not all from one store, of course. She was considerate of others and only took about half of what each store had on the shelves. Then she’d move down the road to the next Walmart and do the same thing. She didn’t think it proper, after all, to inconvenience other shoppers who might also need cheese.

  After she got all her cheese and packed it in a side by side refrigerator at the compound, she spent four days melting red cheese wax in a pot on the stove. Once melted, she dipped each block of cheese in the wax, wrapped it in cheesecloth and then put it aside on waxed paper to cool and dry.

  She put four coats of wax on each block of cheese and then wrapped each in waxed paper. Then she lined them up on top of boxes of supplies that were in the basement storage room. The cheese would keep unrefrigerated for many years.

  In her prepper days Joyce had learned that eggs will keep unrefrigerated for up to a year if they’re coated in mineral oil. Scott had planned to purchase chickens and roosters and to build a chicken coop in the back of the compound. He didn’t bother to tell Joyce, though, until after she’d purchased fifty dozen eggs, treated them and stacked them neatly in the same back bedroom as the dry goods.

  “I’m sorry, Sugar,” Scott said. “I should have told you before you went through all that trouble.”

  She countered, “Oh, it’s no problem. I hope you like eggs, because that’s what you’re getting for breakfast every morning for the next year.”

  Scott did indeed like eggs. And the thought of Joyce waking up next to him every morning for a year appealed to him. They were becoming closer and closer with each passing day. Being heavily involved on their mission helped. It also helped that they found they had the same interests and hobbies.

  Scott asked, “So, now what are you going to work on, since you’ve got our food stores all set?”

  “It’s funny you should ask. I want you to teach me how to drive that tractor, so I can help you with some of the outside chores. I’m tired of being cooped up inside all day while you’re out in the sunshine.”

  “You really want to learn?”

  “Yep. And I want to drive that little Bobcat of yours too. It looks like a lot of fun.”

  Scott had plowed under the field north of the compound where he planned to plant crops in the spring. But he found the soil was a lot rockier than he’d thought.

  The pair walked out to look it over.

  “I hooked up the rake attachment that came in yesterday. It works just like a hard garden rake. We’ll drag it across the plowed land and it’ll drag the rocks to the end of each row. A lot of them will slip through the forks of the rake, though, so we’ll have to do it several times. Once we get them all gathered at the end of the rows, we’ll use the bucket on the Bobcat to pick them up and move them out of here.”

  “Well, that’s not hard. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of days.”

  “Don’t kid yourself. That’s just the first step. Many of the rocks are still buried. After we’re done, we’ll replow the field. More of the rocks will come to the surface. And then we’ll go through the same process again.

  “We’ll probably have to go through the process four times, maybe five, to get all the rocks out of the soil. But that’s not even half the task.”

  “Oh, yeah? Why not?”

  “Because that’ll only clear the first ten inches of soil. It’ll be fine for wheat and sorghum, but corn has a deeper root system.”

  “Okay. So how do we work around that?”

  “We’ll use the bucket on the Bobcat to dig out the first ten inches of clean soil. Basically, we’ll dig a ten inch hole in the ground an acre and a half wide. Then we’ll plow the next ten inches and repeat the process all over again. It’ll be tedious and time consuming, but in the end we’ll have twice the crop yield.”

  Joyce was impressed.

  “How did you find out so much about farming?”

  He laughed.

  “The internet.”

  “Okay, Mister Farmer, you mentioned wheat, sorghum and corn. Why those three crops?”

  “Three different crops, so that we can alternate the types of nutrients we pull from the ground each year. Farmers who plant the same crop in the same ground year after year eventually see a dramatic drop in their yield. They simply pull the nutrients from the soil faster than Mother Nature can replace them.

  “Different crops pull different types of nutrients from the soil. So the first year, we’ll plant a corn crop. We’ll grow as much as we can, and then we’ll store it in 55 gallon drums. We’ll grow sweet corn. It’ll be good enough for us to eat as corn, or we can make corn meal from it. Or corn bread or tortillas, or breading for meats. We can use it a hundred different ways. It will also yield several gallons of corn oil for cooking. And as a pinch, it can be used as cattle feed. And the pigs will love the cobs. It’s like candy to them.

  “The second year we’ll grow sorghum. Cattle feed. By the second year, our initial stock of hay bales will be pretty much gone. So we’ll try to grow enough sorghum for three to four years. We’ll bag it into fifty pound sacks and stack it in one of the barns. And we’ll use it for winter feed, when the snow is too thick and the grass too sparse for the cattle to graze.

  “The third year we’ll grow wheat. And again, we’ll grow as much as we can in the hopes that we can stretch it for three years until we plant another wheat crop.

&
nbsp; “The fourth year we swing back to corn again.”

  “What happens if we don’t grow enough of something and run out?”

  “Then we learn a valuable lesson. It won’t be the end of the world. I mean, if we run low on something, we’ll make modifications. During the off-season, between harvest and planting, we can expand our growing field. Make it larger. Or we can plant it earlier in the season and see if we can grow a second crop before cold weather sets in.

  “In other words, we do what farmers have been doing for thousands of years. We adjust.”

  -12-

  Scott left the compound early enough to beat the boys home from school. Zachary’s bus was running late, as usual, and Jordan beat him home.

  “Hi, Dad.”

  “Hi, pal. How was school?”

  “It sucks. As usual. I can’t wait to graduate. My life will be sooooo much easier.”

  Scott couldn’t help but chuckle. If his son only knew.

  “You understand, don’t you, son, that high school is the fun time in your life? When you get out, you either go to college, where the work is much harder. Or you go to work where you have a boss who rides your ass all day long.

  “And whichever way you go, you have bills to pay, checkbooks to balance, responsibilities to others.”

  “Great! Thanks for reminding me that after high school my life is over. What would I do without you, Dad?”

  “Don’t forget that when your mom and I get old it’s going to be your responsibility to take care of us.”

  Jordan’s jaw dropped.

  “You never told me that before.”

  “Sure. When we get too old to take care of ourselves, you’ll have to do it for us. You can’t just abandon us on somebody’s doorstep, you know. You’ll have to feed us with a spoon when our teeth fall out and we can’t move so much anymore. Change our diapers…”

  Jordan interrupted him.

  “I soooo don’t want to hear this.”

  Scott laughed. Jordan looked at him, not knowing whether he was kidding. So he did what teenagers were good at. He deflected the conversation by changing the subject.

  “What’s for dinner, Dad? I don’t smell anything cooking.”

  “We’re going to Perico’s. Best Mexican food in San Antonio. I didn’t feel like cooking.”

  “All right!” Jordan pumped his fist. “Best news I’ve heard all day.”

  At that precise moment the phone rang. Jordan looked at the caller ID. It was Linda.

  “Hi Mom. How are you?”

  “I’m fine, baby. I just wanted to tell your dad not to make dinner. I’ve got lasagna in the oven. He hasn’t started cooking yet, has he?”

  “Uh, no, Mom.” Technically, it was the truth. But he was crestfallen. He’d have to wait til another day to savor Perico’s beef and potato empanadas.

  “Good. Is he around? Can I talk to him?”

  “Sure, Mom. Here he is.”

  “Hello, Linda. How are you?”

  “I’m well, Scott. I’m glad I caught you before you started cooking. Are you still going to drop the boys off at six?”

  “Uh, yes. We’re just waiting for Zach’s bus to come, and then we’ll pack their bags and head out. We were going to stop for dinner, but we’ll do that another time. Is that why you mentioned my cooking? Do you already have plans?”

  “Yes. I’ve got lasagna in the oven. I hope that’s okay.”

  “Sure, it’s no problem at all. We can eat out anytime and they love your lasagna.”

  “Scott, there was something else I wanted to ask you as well.”

  “Okay. Shoot.”

  “I feel guilty that you’re going through all that work to get your compound ready up there, and I want to help in some way. Is there anything I can do to make it easier on you?”

  He thought for a moment.

  “Well, we still have a lot of computer work to be done.”

  “What kind of computer work? Like research?”

  “Yes, exactly. I’ve been making a list of research materials that might come in handy after the power grids go down. We’ll have computers that we’ll protect from the EMPs. But the internet will be down. It won’t come back up for years if at all. So we won’t just be able to jump on line when we have a question.”

  “Okay. Just tell me what to do.”

  “I’ll give you my list when I drop off the boys. It has things on it like how to do first aid. How to stock a new lake to keep the fish from dying. How to get rid of rats and ticks. How to birth a pig stuck in the birth canal. All kinds of strange things that might come in handy.

  “What I’d like for you to do is just search for as much information on the subjects. Take snapshots of each page and save each snapshot as a .jpg file. For the text, copy and paste it to a Word document.

  “Then, after you’re done, I’ll bring you half a dozen toner cartridges and a couple of reams of paper. You can start printing everything out. You may have ten thousand pages or more by the time you’re done. And much of it may never be used. But if we do need some information later, and have no other way to get it, then it’ll come in real handy.”

  Linda said, “Okay. Good. I have a couple of free hours most evenings, I’ll start working the list tonight, while the boys are playing their video games.”

  “Atta girl, and thanks for your help.”

  “Hey, it’s no problem. Thanks for letting me get involved.”

  “No sweat. Did you put that bike in your trunk like I asked?”

  “Yes. Along with the backpack.”

  “Did Glen give you a hard time about it?”

  “A little. He asked why I had it and I told him I might decide to go for a ride occasionally.”

  “And what did he say?”

  “He mumbled something about my fat ass and him not holding his breath.”

  “That’s Glen, all right. Mister Charming.”

  “I know. Anyway, I have to go check on the lasagna and fix some salads. I’ll see you in a bit.”

  “Okay. Bye now.”

  Scott hung up the phone just in time to hear Zach slam the front door.

  “Hey, Booger! How was your day?”

  “Fine, Dad. School was a drag, though. Thank God it’s Friday.”

  “Yes, indeed. Go upstairs and pack your bag for your mom’s house. She’s got dinner waiting for you.”

  He watched his youngest son bounding up the stairs. He hoped he was wrong about the solar storms. He couldn’t bear to think of his boys suffering in any way. They’d been the one constant in his life for a long time. And the one thing that kept him going on his worst days.

  -13-

  Spring turned into summer and the days grew hot. Even at the compound outside of Junction, where the elevation was several hundred feet higher than in San Antonio, it was painfully hot.

  Joyce was glad to be working in the Bobcat now. It had an enclosed cab, complete with a small air conditioner. The tractor was open air. It subjected the driver not only to the unrelenting rays of the sun, but also to whatever dust and dirt the tractor kicked up.

  The Bobcat was much more comfortable. And it was fun too. Like driving an oversized Tonka toy.

  They’d finished raking out the rocks, and had dumped them in a huge pile at the end of the field. Now Joyce spent her days scooping up the clean dirt they’d made in the bucket of the Bobcat and moving it out of the way. After they’d cleared off the first ten inches of rock-free soil, they’d plow the area again. And they’d repeat the process. When the second ten inches of soil was free of rocks, they’d put the first layer back. And they’d have twenty inches of clean soil to farm with.

  She saw Scott driving up on his Gator and put the Bobcat in neutral. She slid open the driver’s window and said, “Hey, cowboy! What are you up to?”

  “Hey, babe. Are you coming out here tomorrow?”

  “No, I’ve got three properties to show tomorrow. You’ll have to get by without me. Why?”

  “I just need
to borrow the Bobcat for a couple of days.”

  “To do what?”

  “I need to put the auger attachment on it and drill some fence post holes. I just got a call from a friend who works at one of the cement companies. They’re breaking ground on four new housing developments west of town next month. He says cement and concrete are going to be hard to get and are going to shoot up in price for awhile. He said if I had any projects going on to schedule the trucks now.”

  “Does he know about this place and what we’re doing here?”

  “No. He was the broker when I expanded a couple of my storage places. He’s always looking for a commission, so he’s in the habit of calling me occasionally to see if I need any work done.”

  “What did you tell him?”

  “I told him I had a good friend who was building a church summer camp in the mountains near Kerrville. And that I thought they were going to need some concrete work done. I said I’d be his go-between and broker the deal, in exchange for a couple of beers.”

  Joyce laughed.

  “So he won’t figure it out when he gets the check and it’s got your signature on it?”

  “Nope. Because I’m going to transfer the money into your account, and you’re going to write the check.”

  “Oh, so I’m the friend who’s building the church camp. Sneaky… I like the way you think.”

  Joyce went back to digging her pit, and Scott went to the west side of the house. The day before he’d bought a one thousand yard spool of twine and fifty wooden stakes. He hammered one of the wooden stakes at the front corner of the house and tied the end of the twine onto it. Then he paced off fifty yards, unwinding the twine as he went.

  Fifty yards from the house, he hammered in another stake, pulled the twine tight, and wrapped it around the stake several times. Then he went an additional fifty yards.

  He was now one hundred yards away from the house. Here he placed another stake, wrapped the twine around it, and turned ninety degrees to the north.

  When Scott finished an hour later, he had staked out a fence line that extended one hundred yards on each side of the house, and north from the front edge of the house for one hundred yards. When the fence was installed, only the front face of the house would be visible from the driveway. The front face of the house and a ten foot high steel privacy fence.