A Question of Survival

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Introduction

Although this book is fiction and meant to be entertaining, it also has some educational value for anyone interested in preparing themselves for any of the many potential emergencies that may occur, possibly in the not too distant future. It contains a variety of information on systems and procedures that could mean the difference between living and dying under certain circumstances. Most of this information has been proven and is actually in use as you read these pages.

For a person to survive any given situation, several things come into play. One of the most important elements of survival or, in other words, self-preservation, is a strong will to live and the determination to do whatever it takes to assure that this is accomplished. The single element that determines how easy or difficult this will be is the level of preparation that has been accomplished before the event occurs. Maintaining one’s health and protecting these preparations is paramount in any survival situation. Another very important element in surviving any emergency is an understanding of what has happened, as well as a thorough knowledge of what the short-term and long-term effects of the event will be.

There are many potential situations that could require extraordinary efforts to survive, such as hurricanes, floods, civil unrest, terrorist attacks and etc. This book is about the effects of an EMP, electromagnetic pulse, and the preparations, procedures and physical efforts necessary to survive it. An EMP can be caused by a CME, coronal mass ejection, also known as a solar flare. It can also be caused by a nuclear explosion high above the earth’s surface. Although there is no fallout as a result of such an occurrence taking place above the earth, there is a high-voltage pulse produced as the detonation passes through the atmosphere. All unprotected solid-state devices, such as personal computers, the computers found in modern cars and trucks, cell phones, TVs, radios, and medical equipment, such as pacemakers, hearing aids and testing equipment, will be destroyed. In addition, all law enforcement, aviation and most military communication and navigation equipment will stop functioning. One of the most dramatic effects of an EMP will be the total shutdown of the electric power grid, including all computers and transformers controlling the grid.

A few years ago a commission was formed to study the potential effects of an EMP and the likelihood of one occurring. The warnings issued by the commission to Congress have, for the most part, been ignored. Considering the dependence on technology and solid-state devices that the people of this country now have and the ease of triggering an EMP over the United States, ignoring these warnings has put the United States unnecessarily in grave danger.

Considering what will be lost and what will no longer be obtainable as a result of this type of catastrophe, failing to prepare for it borders on negligence and may turn out to be suicide. Some careful planning and consideration of the things needed to survive will provide a starting point for building a stock of these necessities. There are many sources available for information to guide people through this process. Hopefully, for those of you new to this line of thought, this book will help you begin your preparations. Good luck to all of you.

Chapter 1

There was nothing unusual about this particular Monday morning as Dave stood on the front porch, looking around the yard as he did every morning on his way to the chicken coop. The improvements that he and Becky had made over the four years that they’d owned the cabin were significant and they were proud of what they’d done.

The routine was the same every day and consisted of topping off the food and water, letting them into the fenced yard around the coop, collecting eggs that had been laid in the nesting boxes then trying to make it out of their yard unscathed. It was one of the few chores that had to be done every day and, on some days, was the only thing that got Dave out of bed before eight.

As it had turned out, the original order of chickens had accidentally contained a red silky rooster who was later named Red. Red had developed a sincere hatred for Dave that occasionally led to physical attacks on him as he would try to pick something up from the ground or touch any of the hens. Over time, Red had learned that the most effective way to land a vicious bite or spurring on Dave was the sneak attack. He would pretend to be concentrating on the food or water, and then attack when Dave wasn’t looking. The injuries were never life- threatening and could usually be treated with some Neosporin and a Band-Aid. Becky always sided with Red as Dave would sometimes, just for the fun of it, pet Red while he was asleep in the dark. He liked to see him dance around on the perch, biting wildly into the air with the hopes of getting a little skin.

The chickens had been Becky’s idea. She had done quite a bit of research on raising chickens for eggs and had convinced Dave that it would be a practical move as far as being a little more self-sufficient and would fit in perfectly with their survival plan.

Dave had constructed a fully insulated four foot by ten foot coop eighteen inches above the ground, enclosed an additional eight by ten area on the side of the coop with chicken wire and covered the whole thing with a metal roof. A door opened into a twelve by sixteen yard between the chicken pen and the garden. They had agreed on a flock of six birds to start. Although the number of eggs varied depending on the time of year, they hadn’t had to buy eggs since the chicks started laying and during the summer months got enough to give a dozen away from time to time. To ease the expense of feeding them, they were set free each afternoon to free range.

He was really enjoying his retirement since moving into the cabin. There was the occasional boring period with nothing to do but, for the most part, there was usually a project that needed doing; something that needed to be repaired, a ride on the ATV, an afternoon at the shooting range or hunting during most of the fall big game season. Winter was the most boring time of year and that’s when Becky would visit her son in Tennessee. The break from the cold weather and snow always did her good, and Dave enjoyed the time alone.

Although Dave was originally from Vermont, he and Becky had no plans to ever live there when they left Chattanooga in April of 2011. They had been working at jobs that they enjoyed and had no immediate plans for retirement until several unexpected events changed the direction of their lives.

Dave had been working as a flight instructor near Chattanooga after leaving a piloting job flying for a small freight company in Dallas. He had moved south from Vermont in 1995 to take the piloting job and was excited about the new job and the change of scenery. As all freight moves at night and in all kinds of weather, the five years spent there had been enough for him. One night, while waiting for his plane to be loaded at the airport, he was approached by another pilot from the Chattanooga area. He had talked to the pilot on several occasions as they often flew into Dallas at the same time. He knew Dave was looking for something a little different, so he told him about a new charter company that was starting up in Chattanooga and was in need of an instructor to train and test the pilots that were being hired. The schedule was great, with all training done during week days. The job turned out to be even better than expected, and after some vacation incentives and a pay raise, Dave had made up his mind that this was where he would stay as long as he was able to work. His boss and his co-workers were all great and more like a big family than just a group of people working together.

Becky, although claiming to be a military brat, was really a southern girl. She had one brother that ran a business in Knoxville. Her mother had passed away several years ago and her father lived outside of Chattanooga. Becky was an attractive five foot four redhead with pretty green eyes, and she always had a warm and sincere smile on her face. She was a very down to earth girl with an outgoing personality and always had a pleasant word for anyone she met. Her hair was usually in a pony tail and she was most comfortable with a baseball cap, t-shirt and blue jeans. She was always trying to eat carefully as she thought she had a tendency to put on a little extra weight, but she was the only one that could see that tendency. She was deeply devoted to her family and her faith. She had been living in the Chattanooga area for most of her adult life and doing contract artwork for most of that time. She was currently working for a small law firm there as a legal secretary. Her boss was a great guy and an excellent lawyer. She found the job extremely rewarding, mainly because of the interaction with the clients. She was divorced and had one teenaged son, Randy. The two of them had been on their own together for several years and were very close. Seldom did a weekend go by without them getting together for lunch or a cookout.

Dave and Becky met at a time when Dave was divorcing what he called his biggest mistake. They hit it off immediately and just couldn’t seem to spend enough time together. It wasn’t long before they decided to get married. After meeting Becky, Dave’s family was completely supportive of the decision. Of course, after his last mistake, the Wicked Witch of the West would have been welcomed into the family with open arms.

They had been living in a small home just outside Chattanooga for a couple of years, just enjoying being together and working at jobs they loved. Dave had always loved boating and although he already had a 20’ Sea Ray bowrider, they decided to buy a 1980 36’ Grand Banks trawler that they happened across at a nearby marina. A boat like that would allow them to actually go out for the weekend and live on the boat in luxury, compared to the bowrider. Things were going well and at that time, not much thought was given to the downhill slide the world was in.

The purchase of a three month old Bull Terrier puppy, whom they decided to name Maxwell, for Becky’s birthday present in 2008 made the family complete. Becky’s son was living with roommates in Knoxville and working for her brother. Life was very comfortable and enjoyable but that was about to start changing for the worse.

The lawyer that Becky was working for developed health problems and had to leave the firm unexpectedly. Now she was out of a job. Becky’s dad lived alone in his home in the country outside Chattanooga. Her dad was, at the time, not in the best of health and needed someone to take care of him. Out of concern for her dad, Becky started making the 50 mile trip to his house several times a week to assure that he was taking his medications as prescribed, making sure he was eating properly and helping to keep the house in order. As this additional travel time and mileage became more of a problem, she asked Dave if he would be willing to move into her dad’s house so she could take better care of him. The decision didn’t take much thought, as Dave had always loved and respected her dad. So the move was made. At about the same time, a neighbor approached Dave and asked if he would be willing to rent their home to his daughter and son-in-law rather than leave it empty. Dave and Becky decided to just have them take over the payments on the house, and make Becky’s dad’s house their new home. They would just take over his payments at such time when he passed away.

The next shoe to fall was at the charter company where Dave was working. The company had recently changed hands and the new boss had managed to lose their biggest customer and 80% of their business. Things went downhill from there and several pilots were let go, including Dave. Dave was now out of work.

Flying and flight instruction had been Dave’s profession, as well as his obsession, since he sold his electronics repair business in ’89. In the electronics field Dave was now a dinosaur, so aviation was the obvious place to stay. He had written training scenarios at different times during his career so, after a long talk with Becky, he decided to start a contract flight instruction business. He would travel to the customer’s location and provide the instruction in the customer’s own aircraft. He designed a website and wrote a training scenario. The business wasn’t exactly jumping but he made good money from each contract. At least it was something to build on.

Fate decided to deal yet one more painful blow. Within a couple of months Becky’s dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and passed away within a very short time. As the payments on his home were excessive, there was no way to continue making them with just a part time job. Foreclosure was a sure thing in the not too distant future. Dave decided that it would not be fair to take their house back as the young couple living there had made several costly improvements to the property. A new direction had to be taken and, as they had few options, they made the decision to make the trawler their new home.

Everything was inventoried and laid out to be sold. Everything that could be sold was and the rest was put into storage. The boat was made ready for a trip from the marina in Chattanooga where the boat was kept to a marina in Vermont where a friend of Dave’s worked as manager. With few options, Dave and Becky had decided to take the boat north for the summer, have necessary work done on it then take it back south in the winter.

With all preparations made and the new direction chosen, Dave, Becky and Max left the marina in May of 2011 for Vermont with the plan of taking the boat to Florida in the fall. Their trip would take them from Chattanooga, by way of the Tennessee River and the Tenn Tom Waterway, to Mobile, Alabama. From there, they would cross the Gulf of Mexico to the west coast of Florida where they would enter the Okeechobee Waterway. That would get them across the state to the east coast where they would make their way up the coast to New York and the Hudson River, then to Lake Champlain and the destination marina.

The 3000 mile, 75 day trip was relatively uneventful and, for the most part, quite relaxing. Max loved all the attention he got and thoroughly enjoyed helping Becky fish once the boat was anchored for the night. He even got to kiss the small sharks she caught.

Once in Vermont, they got to spend a lot of time with Dave’s family while work progressed on the trawler. As work on the trawler was coming to an end, hurricane Irene decided to pay a visit to the east coast. The effects were felt along the Champlain Canal and some of the locks in the canal were damaged and unusable. This became a concern as passage through these locks was necessary for the trip south. Dave stayed in contact with the people in charge of the lock repairs, but by the time the determination was made that some of them would not be fixed before freezing temperatures necessitated the closing of the lock system, it was too late to make the trip by crossing the Great Lakes. The trawler would spend the winter out of water in Vermont. Another new direction was to be taken.

Dave’s friend graciously invited Dave, Becky and Max to stay at his house indefinitely, but neither Dave nor Becky felt comfortable taking advantage of the offer for an extended period. It was obvious by then that the snowbird life style of going south in the winter and returning north in the summer wasn’t going to work. A search began for a new home for the three of them. This search was now being done with very little money and only Dave’s part-time work as a contract flight instructor to keep them going. This was, strangely enough, the beginning of a major improvement in their lives, although at the time it seemed like having one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel.

Dave had always loved the outdoors, the woods, hunting, camping and the like, and he and Becky had similar preferences regarding a place to live. Neither would consider life in a large town or a city. With that in mind they started looking for a place off the beaten path. A look at a few online real estate sites and a talk with a real estate agent led them to check out a cabin for sale outside of Kirbyville, a small village about 40 miles inland from the canal.

The cabin was about three miles down a dirt road, named Whitetail Road, and nearly that far from the nearest power pole. Whitetail Road continued on past the cabin for about a mile and a half to the T at River Road. River Road was another dirt road and ran into Kirbyville in one direction and into the main road about five miles in the opposite direction. The cabin was located about nine miles from Kirbyville and sat on a half acre of land surrounded by woods. The only dwellings on the road were hunting camps and small cabins. The only permanent residents were far enough back in the woods, down a long private drive, that they were invisible from the road. There was a neighboring camp just on the other side of the property. The setting was very peaceful and, although the yard was a mess with weeds, miscellaneous trash and a small camper trailer with flat tires, they decided to call the owner to see the inside.

The cabin was small, less than 800 square feet, with a shed on the back and a garden type shed in the back yard. The only door entered near the front of the cabin on the side. Inside was a main room that included the kitchen and living area. Toward the back were two small adjacent rooms with a small hallway between them. Continuing through the room on the right and up two steps was the bathroom.

There was a deep well with good water and a relatively new septic system, including a real toilet as opposed to an outhouse. The water system included the well with a submersible pump, a pressure tank in the cabin and a tank mounted on the bathroom wall that was filled from the well and was used to flush the toilet. There was a 5000 watt generator in a small shed on the back of the cabin. There was a four-burner propane stove with an oven, a propane water heater, a small propane refrigerator and a large wood stove. The few pieces of furniture were old and broken. The floor was slate tile with a raised wooden floor in the living area, which was covered with an old, torn red and black carpet. The shower was barely functional, with a bucket at the top which supplied water for the shower after it was filled. That was nearly a deal breaker for Becky but Dave made a sincere promise to improve it in a reasonable amount of time. Cabin heat was provided by the large, airtight wood stove in the main living area.

The cabin had been rented to hunters during hunting season before it was put up for sale. It reflected that use perfectly, including a gas grill inside the cabin that was used occasionally by the hunters when the stove ran out of propane. There were also clothes lines throughout the living area that hung from hooks on the ceiling. The lights were the basic socket and bulb type fixtures with pull strings.

One of the best things about the cabin was the purchase price and the terms. The cabin had been listed for quite a while with a real estate agent and the listing had run out with no serious inquiries. The price had been dropped significantly and the seller was now willing to finance the cabin herself if necessary. So now, with little money and a part time job, they were about to become homeowners again.

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