ol remus and the woodpile report

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Chapter 8

It was easy to shut down the power all across the country on February 27 th two years ago. It was another thing to restart the generators. Those with sufficient gold or silver to do that work had moved out of the country right after the first signs of the crash … a crash that ended up destroying the entire world's economy. The common people in every country knew what had happened from the internet, and those who were robbed then robbed anyone with excessive wealth with impunity. Many of the wealthy were killed after being robbed. That also with impunity, for there was only the basic law in every country which was essentially “an eye for an eye”, and those who rejected the law in the past were not granted its protection now. The people knew the rich caused the deaths of millions around the world, and death was what they themselves deserved. However, it seemed only the rich people who offered money to have their life spared were killed. The people thought it was like they were being offered a share of the ill-gotten riches to become part of the wretchedness.

Federal and state governments had only figureheads. They had no money to do anything but make speeches few listened to. Without electrical power everything was down, everything but farming with horses and mules, mail delivery by horse, making cloth with looms and hand sewing clothes. The city population had been decimated. The survivors were mostly neighborhood groups that protected each other and were greater in number than the roving hoards of delinquent thieves, but when the thieves grouped to even greater numbers other neighborhood groups would assist in protecting the attacked people. The other small group of survivors were those greatly prepared with well hidden preserves to last them over a year and who were proficient in hiding in the worst part of the cities where it was thought everything useful was already stripped and taken. There were a few innovative old people, who wore pieces of canned tomatoes on their faces whenever they went outside, who survived. It was rumored they had leprosy … a rumor they themselves started. These old people would walk towards the murderous thieves as though looking for help. The thieves would run from them. No one wanted to get near them. All of the other people were not prepared and died from either starvation, freezing, disease, suicide or murder.

Those survivors moved into the better of the vacant houses that had fireplaces. They used the other vandalized houses for firewood, leaving vacant lots all throughout the city. These lots were used for growing food. “ Victory Gardens ” the old people called these patches.

There seemed to be nothing for the children to do that they were used to doing before the power shut down. There were no video games to play on television because there was no electric to operate the television. The same regarding no internet access. Had this been the only problem after the crash, every child from five years old to thirty years old would have turned into murderers from the withdrawal symptoms, but survival was now priority, and the things they had to do to survive have now become the things they are used to doing.

The mothers would mend worn clothing using the thread from unraveled older clothing. Sewing needles and buttons had become cherished items used to trade for the few rolls of thread or bolts of cloth available, but they could be used for other things also. For example, a handful of common buttons could get all the baby clothes needed from a woman whose children were now in their teens and rough on clothes. Unusual buttons were like gold themselves, for if you had just the right one you could trade it for a whole suit if it was the size you could use … or a beautiful evening gown if you'd rather that. This type of trading would sometimes require most of a day every week, and there would be several locations within a city where people could congregate to facilitate these trades. Merchants specializing in particular items would set up a booth so others would know where to come if they wanted their items. No one wanted to be called a banker anymore, but Facilitators , as they were known, would use their own money to make complicated trades for a fee.

The families with great grandparents were blessed the most … especially the ones in their mid ninties if they were still mentally alert, for they remembered life during the Great Depression when things were bad … even though not as bad as now. The old women remembered how to can food, knew how to knit and crochet beautiful clothing from thread and some even remembered their own grandmothers teaching them how to make thread and yarn. Not only were these old folks a survival asset with these skills, they were also a monetary asset, as others would trade needed items to have these skills taught to them.

Canning supplies became an item to trade. Ten unchipped Ball jars could be traded for one filled already with almost anything you wanted. There were no new seal covers available for the Ball jars, but every old person could tell if a used cover was still intact and could be reused. When no covers were available, melted Paraffin wax poured on the top of the filled jar would be used to seal the jars. Paraffin wax was a good trade item too, because it could be used for candles also, and everyone learned how to make the needed candles. Candle-making was a good job for the children, and they became inventive in making the molds for different shapes and melting pieces of crayon into the mold for a decorative look. Crayons were a good trade item too, along with old tin cans for the easy to cut thin metal for the candle molds. The great grandfathers would show the children how to cut the metal and make the molds.

Those old men also knew all about bicycles, for that was what they used for transportation until they were in their mid twenties and wealthy enough to buy an old used model ‘A' car for the about thirty dollars it cost back then. Bicycles were now the best transportation for travel around the city. Bicycle parts were good trade items. Sometimes a wheel the right size with a useable tire on it could be traded for a whole workable bicycle. The word on the street was that a working Schwinn complete and in good condition could be traded for a Silver Eagle, and a Shwinn Panther model like Pee-wee Herman had would fetch two ounces of gold. But alas, no one now had one of those coveted bicycles. Most of the men in their early seventies and late sixties had one as a kid, but regrettably, they could only tell others how grand they were. Privately, they kicked themselves for not keeping them. Who knew they would ever come back?

There were social and governmental events that required a central government. A record of who owned what land was required. This was essentially a local governing problem, as each in a neighborhood knew who owned what. Jane Hutton, John's daughter with an Economics degree, handled the records for her county and was asked to handle it for an ever growing area eventually covering the western part of Pennsylvania . She charged one silver dime, or the equivalent in useful nonperishable items, to record a parcel of land. This money was used to hire people to assist her. The record of ownership would say “uncontested” and would be the property of that person unless and until someone did contest it. It would say “confirmed” if surveyed by someone qualified to do so and there was a deed produced by the owner.

Many of the people in the cities did not purchase the homes they lived in or the nearby vacant lots they grew their gardens. They were squatters. The true owners were dead. What they would have to do is make a legible sketch of the houses and lots around them, listing the people who lived in the surrounding houses with their signatures on the sketch confirming they agree with it. Then, upon paying a second silver dime the record would be stamped “confirmed”, and the property would be theirs just as though they purchased it.

Greed was considered the vise that ruined the world and no one wanted to be accused of greediness. No one wanted more than they needed or at most what they could use within a reasonable time. Cooperation was the noble trait everyone tried to master, along with compassion and charity towards their fellow man. For those who did not live by “God's Laws” there was only the neighborhood to answer to, and the neighborhood would decide on the punishment. There were no appeals unless the accused said he was innocent, and he would have to think twice about saying it if it were untrue, because a court would be drawn from his peers in a distant county to judge the evidence, and should it be found he was lying about being innocent he would be shackled like a slave and made to work for the rest of his life for the State, not for the crime he was found guilty of, but for the crime of lying to the court that he was innocent. There were few crimes because the people knew they needed each other, and there were fewer appeals, for the people all remembered how the politicians and bankers lied before the crash; lying to the court was now a grave crime that would not be tolerated.

Steward was sitting on a big rock at the edge of the field. Another day of hoeing tomato and potato plants was done. The sun would be going down in another hour, he was tired but happy and unhappy both.

“Can I join you, Stewie?” asked Garnie as she came from the cabin behind him.

“Sure. Pull up a rock, sis. Here's a nice one”, as Steward wipes off the top of a big one next to him.

Garnie sits down and says, “When we first got here I thought farmers only grew stuff between the rows of rocks and I never knew how these rocks got all in a row at the edges of the field.”

“Did you think God put them in a row to separate the fields for the farmers?”

“No, Steward. All I said was that I didn't know how they got to the side of the field.”

“It's getting harder and harder to kid you now that you are older, sis.”

“And you are getting more and more serious as you get older, Stew. Lately you are so serious you seem to almost be moping. Is something bothering you?”

“I'm realizing I'm stupid. I can't do anything complicated.”

“What do you want to do that you can't?”

“I was going to be a mechanical engineer. I was going to know everything about mechanical stuff. I don't even know how to make common things like a pencil or a ball bearing. I don't even know how to run a milling machine or a lathe or a surface or cylindrical grinder. I can't make anything. I can't even weld things together. Here we are trying to rebuild the world and I can't help much.”

“We don't have any of those machines anyway, so what does it matter if you don't know how to run a pencil making machine.”

Steward looks at Garland and smiles. “I was thinking of the problem of how they got the lead inside the wood.”

Garland says, “Probably the same way they get jelly inside a donut.”

Steward laughs, “And how do they do that?”

Garland smiles and says, “I'll ask Pookie. I'm only at the eating level right now. I'll ask her about ball bearings and welding while I'm at it. Also I'll ask her when you two are getting married.”

“Everyone noticed?”

“Everyone noticed you googlie-eyed her way back when you first met. Besides, you need someone to sing to you and I won't be around.”

“Where are you and Karl going to live?” asked Steward.

“Everyone noticed that too?”

“It's a small neighborhood, sis, and everyone can hear your piano and violin duets all over the farm.”

“Shorty is cutting off one hundred acres right next to John's new place. I'll only be a half mile down the road.

“I'll be across the road. Dad bought the two hundred acre farm from ol' Cora Ostrum. I'm getting it for a wedding present.”

“I'm the last to know anything”, says Garland .

“Everyone is just waiting for wedding dates.”

“I would like it to be a double wedding, Stewie. Ask Pookie if we can have a double. I know it would be her day and she might want her own day, but tell her you and I always do stuff together, and getting married together might be the last thing we can do together. Ask her Stewie.”

“She already said she was waiting to hear your date to see if you wanted a double.”

“How would she have known I would like a double wedding?”

“I told her I would like one.”

“Stewie! You old softy”, and Garland puts her arm around Steward and her head on his shoulder and says, “You are the best twin brother I have.”

It only took two months for the families to build the two new houses. Jane Hutton, Pookie's older sister who was now the County manager for five counties and the Justice of the Peace for them also, presided over the marriages which were held on the great lawn of the Hutton farm. Everyone who fought in what was now called The Great Old Soldiers War held there almost two and one half years ago was invited, and almost all of the four thousand came. Tony's daughters Sonia and Rachael were now five and six years old. They were the flower girls. The old soldiers Tony and Martin were the ring bearers who had a scarlet robe sewn into their military jackets by Pookie just as the wool ones were. They looked like the Queen's Guards and felt proud to be in the wedding of their General and his family. Martin insisted on turning the wheels of his wheelchair himself to get down the aisle, and refused to be pushed, saying, after a big inhale, “I am a soldier.”

The weddings were the finest that money could buy … well, the finest that things could be traded for anyway. The thought that life would go on no matter what had happened was the thought of the day. Times had changed from three years ago, but it was nice to have a day of celebration after years of living like the early settlers. There was plenty of food prepared: fresh corn on the cob roasted in the twenty five grills manned by the Hutton brothers' college friends. There was mashed potatoes, roasted pork and beef, and plenty of cake from the ten huge wedding cakes needed for all those guests and it was served by Garland 's, Pookie's and Jane's college friends. There were five thousand guests in all, seated on the great lawn in the soft breeze of that sunny day on boards held up by cement blocks at tables made of boards held up by cement blocks, all gladly loaned by the builder's supply company that supplied the lumber to build the two new houses, … a builder who just saw five thousand potential future customers and who knew the material would still be in perfect condition after the weddings.

When the evening was seen to be arriving, Roger approached Steward and says, “You must leave first with your wife, because the soldiers won't leave until you do and it is getting late for them. Before you go, Garnie wanted you to have this”, and Roger gives Steward an envelope.

Steward and Pookie got into the horse drawn carriage and rode East between two rows of tables. Steward stood saluting the old soldiers as he rode. The old soldiers saluted back, most with tears in their eyes. At the end of the field the horses turned the carriage around and Steward rode between the other two rows of tables in the same way, but this time all the old soldiers were cheering and waving their hats. Steward clasped his hands over his head as a victory sign and when he got to the West end of the field he stood saluting all of his brave old soldiers. They continued saluting back even as Steward rode the carriage across the road, down his new driveway and was seen carrying his new bride into their new house. The roar of the old soldiers' cheer as Steward carried her was deafening even at the distance Steward was from them.

Roger leans over towards his daughter and says, “How does it feel to see your twin brother ride off into the sunset?”

“He didn't ride off into the sunset, Daddy. He rode off into the reset . Stewie is going to make things all better again.”

Meanwhile Steward opens the envelope from Garland that his father gave him and sees a little note saying,

Jelly goes into a donut by injection with a big needle.

Pencils are made as follows:

• You start with a block of Cedar wood and cut it into thin slats that are the length of the pencil you want to make.

• You cut half-circle grooves the diameter of the lead you are going to use into the wood at a center distance equal to the distance of the lead between two pencils laying side-by-side but with the added distance of a saw blade that will cut them apart.

• Round leads (actually it is graphite) are laid in the grooves and a second slat prepared like the one with the lead just put on it is placed over it with glue to gold the two halves and lead together.

• You now run the block through a milling process where you cut the block of pencils into individual ones.

Now you solve all the rest, since you are smarter than me.

“Do all the rest”, Steward quietly said as he stood there holding the paper and smiling. He thought, “Just do all the rest to put us back where we were. Well, Garnie, we are back where we were … right where we were about one hundred and fifty years ago. You got your reset, but it didn't take you where you thought it would. It took us to a nicer place and time.”

The End

See the next Woodpile Report for more

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Chapter 1

Garland Hammond puts her cell phone to her ear, listens for a moment and hollers, “ Going home? Break isn't for another month, Stewie. And it's Wednesday. I have two more days of classes before the week end and it takes most of the day to drive home. I'm not going to waste two days of driving with only you to talk to. I'm not going.”

On the other side of the campus Steward Hammond is standing next to his Honda with his cell phone to his ear. “This isn't just another suggestion from Dad, sis. He said he was demanding us to come home. He said this is not only the time; he said it might be past the time and we are not to waste time collecting anything we own that we will not need right now. So grab your buggy bag and pack a pair of your favorite panties, Garnie. I'll be there in one half hour to either pick you up or wave goodbye for perhaps forever.” Steward closes his cell phone before his sister can go into her same old complaint of ‘How come Dad lets you have a car and not me?'

Steward and Garland were twins. They have been together in the womb, in a crib, in the same bedroom until they were five, in grammar and high school …together for what seemed to them like everything but bathroom activities. They finally are at the opposite ends of the college campus, don't take any classes together, and hardly ever see each other during the week. Steward was studying to be a Mechanical Engineer. Garland was a Music major. Steward loved to solve math problems. Garland loved to play the violin. Both were average third year students. Both were “B” students. Both were so happy to finally be alone they made a lot of friends to cure a lonely feeling.

“Hop in Garnie. Dad is expecting us to be home early tomorrow”, says Steward as he drives up to her standing in front of the girls dormitory complex.

As she throws her books and a backpack into the back seat she leans into the car and says, “Look around, Stewie. Does it look like the world is falling apart? Why should we jump every time dad has a paranoia spell?”

“He said it looks like it may have started, Garnie. Dad says he thinks it will fall apart faster than he imagined. He wants us with him and mom at the cabin.”

Garland hollers, “ What ? Not the cabin , Stewie. You said we were going home . Going to the cabin is like a sentence to solitary confinement. I have to go back and get my violin and music.”

“We have to go now , sis.”

“Please, Stew. Wait for me. I would go crazy in that cabin without my music”, and she runs back into the dormitory. Ten minutes later she comes out carrying her violin, sheet music and a very big teddy bear. Steward was waiting just outside the door to carry whatever he could, saying, “If there is anything else you need get it now. The bus is leaving, sis.” Garland smiles, says, “Thanks, Stewie”, and runs back into the dormitory, coming back out like she was Santa Claus with the sheet off her bed over her shoulder, filled with all her clothes and all of the trinkets she has accumulated from the age of five when she started collecting them.

“Where are we going to put all that stuff, Garnie? The trunk is full of my stuff.”

“I can spread it out in the back seat. Besides, don't I get to use half the car?”, as she pulls items from the sheet and places them inside some of her clothes to keep them from breaking. “See? You can still look out the back window.”

“Where's your buggie bag? You have to have that handy, sis.”

“It's right here behind my seat. Where did you put your big bag?”

“In the trunk. Buckle up. We're off.”

As they leave the campus Steward turns on the radio for the latest local news and hears, “West traveling traffic on Highway 238 is slow. Police must be looking for someone. There is a road block out of the city at Dewpoint Road just before the interstate ramps. Everything should settle down shortly. Just be patient, folks.”

Steward pulls into a small gas station called Joe's Friendly Service to top off his tank. He liked this gas station even though the price of gasoline was a nickel more than the big brand named ones, because Joe, the owner, who was about forty years old, thin, bald and always ran to meet the customer, would always pump the gas himself, wash the windshield and the back window, wipe the mirrors, check the oil and look at the tires to see if he should recommend he check the pressure of any. Steward told Joe he had to drive over eight hundred miles. That was all he had to say to have Joe check the fan belts for cracks, the water level in the radiator, the water in the battery, the brake fluid level, and the transmission oil level … all at no charge to all customers that indicated they would benefit from his inspection.

Steward hands Joe his credit card to pay for the gas. Joe, who always smiled was now frowning. “I'm sorry, sir. Credit cards are not being processed for some reason. It's not just your card. All credit cards are not processing. I know you are a regular customer, so if you need to, you can pay me when things clear up or when you have the cash.”

Steward hands Joe three twenty dollar bills, saying, “Some people might never pay you if you freely give out credit, Joe. Then you wouldn't be here when I need you. Let them know you can't take the cards before you pump the gas, and only take cash anyway, because with the inflation we're seeing, by the time you get the credit card money it will have inflated your profit away. Pretty soon money is going to be almost worthless.”

Joe returns with the change and also hands Steward a ball point pen with Joe's Friendly Service written on the side. “Thank you for that advice, sir”, said Joe with his usual smile.

Steward drives to the minimarket and pulls in the parking lot. “Buy a couple ham subs and a six-pack of fruit juice for our trip sis. I'm going to check in with dad about that road block”, as he pulls out his cell phone.

“Money”, says Garland as she holds out her hand.

“Don't you have any?” asks Steward, handing her a twenty.

“Yes, but you always have more”, she says as she walks towards the store.

When she comes back fifteen minutes later Steward is still on the phone. She hears him say, “Yes. I have the car charger for the phone. Yes, she has her phone too. I spent fifty for gas, gave Garnie twenty which I'll never see the change because she doesn't have any money as usual, I had eighty, so with the money in the bug-out bags we have a little over six hundred right now with a full tank. I'll call back in an hour or maybe sooner if something happens. Garnie says to say Hi to you and mom.”

Steward starts the car and says, “Dad says we gotta take the back roads to the cabin. According to his sources the road block on 238 is a weapons checkpoint. He thinks all weapons are being confiscated.

“So? Why should we care?” asks Garland , and then adds, “You don't have any weapons, do you Stew?”

“Only a .45 automatic pistol and a 12 gauge shotgun in the big buggy bag in the trunk”, was his reply.

“You're not supposed to have a pistol, Steward. You need a license to own one”, hollered Garland .

“I have a concealed carry permit, sis. It's all legal, except for the part where I'm not supposed to have weapons on the campus. If things go as dad is worried about, the school will be begging me to bring them back to protect the professors and those big tough football players. Talking about the professors, dad wanted to know if any of them suddenly cancelled classes for next week. I told him I only knew of one. A friend of mine is taking Economics 204 and said his professor came in today, cancelled the class and said he had to go out of town for a while and would contact everyone when the next class would be.”

Garland jumps in to say, “My friend Myrna is in that class. She said she thought there was a death in his family because he seemed all worried and sad.”

“Dad said the teachers, like for Economics and international politics, would be keeping up on financial problems and would be the first to know of a meltdown.”

Garland turns and says, “I always hated that word “meltdown”. It makes a little money problem sound like a nuclear disaster where no one survives.”

“According to dad it won't be a little problem with money. It would be where no one's money is any good. He says a money problem like that will cause every other problem known to man to flourish and every evil that man is capable of doing will be a day-to-day problem facing the survivors. He said there will be a shortage of everything. Disease will be rampant because the whole society will break down. No water. No police. No food. No doctors working. It sounds worse than a nuclear meltdown where only the people near the reactor or bomb die. The whole world will take a two thousand year step backward in the way they live.”

“Oh Stew. That can never happen. The water flows by gravity, so nothing will stop it. The farmers will always grow food for us because that is all they know how to do. The government controls and prints money so there will always be some there for us. Dad is just paranoid.”

“He said most people cannot accept the fact that this problem is coming because they can't understand how it could happen. He said no one living has ever lived through these problems so they can't picture themselves having the problems. He said almost everyone believes our rich powerful country can solve all problems.”

“It can Stewie.”

“Our country is bankrupt, sis. People are nervous about our money. They are saying its just paper. It is only accepted for subs and drinks because there are still people who think they can use it to get what they want to buy, but countries don't want it anymore. Our government printed too much money with nothing to back it up. Our country owes more money than it can possibly repay. That is the definition of being bankrupt.

“So why are we going to that rickety old one room cabin … so we can get a head start on living like they did two thousand years ago?”

“To put some distance between us and the rest of the population. For survival, sis. Dad has almost everything we will need for a long time stored in the cabin. He had the Amish people add on to it while we were in school just to give you a separate bedroom and more space to store stuff. Most people have not prepared because they didn't see the problem coming. They will go homeless and hungry. They would try to kill us to have what we have so they can provide the stuff for their own families. We couldn't blame them. All dad wants to do is be far away from those people.”

“And how long does dad think we have to hang out at the cabin?”

“If he is wrong we will be back at school Monday. If he is right you will be raising your kids there … that is if you can find a farmer or hunter you like that will put up with you”, and Steward chuckles.

Garland starts crying. “I don't want to talk or think about this problem anymore.”

“Mom told me a story the last time we were home that you might like to hear. It's all about a little boy and a little girl who were just born and were twins. Want to hear it?”

“I know all of our baby stories, Stewie.”

“This one is how we got our names. No one but mom and dad knew it before she told me. Wanna hear it?”

“Okay.”

“Dad saw us for the first time through the window at the Maternity Ward at the hospital. Mom said he said I looked like a boiled potato, but he thought you were like a beautiful gem … ‘like a pearl or a diamond', she said he said. He told her he wanted to name you after one of the gems, but most of the names were taken, like pearl, opal, jade, amber and ruby. He went to the library the next day to look up what the other gems were. They didn't have the internet back then and searching for an answer took longer. He ran into a high school friend at the library who suggested the name Garnet. Dad looked it up and seen it was the perfect name because he thought the stone was as beautiful as you and he never heard of anyone with that name before so you would be the first. His friend invited him home for supper since mom was still in the hospital. They ate stew for supper, but his friend always put hot red peppers in the stew. The next day dad had gas. He went to the hospital to pick mom and us up and was stopped at the Maternity Ward front desk. They wanted to know what names to put on the birth certificates. Dad scratched his head trying to think of the name of the gem he was going to name you after. He asked the nurse what was the name of a green gem. I guess dad just seen a green Garnet and didn't know they come in different colors. The nurse said she thought it was something like Garland . Dad said, ‘Yes. That's it. That's her name.' The nurse then asked what the boy's name will be. Just then the gas kicked in and dad tried to muffle a big burp. The nurse asked, ‘What was that?' Dad said, “Stew”. Just then mom came out in a wheelchair holding us. Dad was so excited to see us he forgot to tell the nurse my name was going to be Howard. The nurse just assumed Stew was short for Steward, not knowing it should have been spelled Stewart . And there you are, sis. You should have been named after a beautiful green gemstone but instead are named after a Christmas wreath, and I have the name of a custodian, named after a burp.”

Garland chuckled at that. “Be thankful you don't have the same name as Uncle Howard. Gee, dad didn't give your name any thought at all.”

“No one takes boiled potatoes serious. Now you know why you're called Garnie instead of Garlie. Dad at least gave you the nickname of Garnet.”

“That was an interesting story, Stew. Thanks for telling me. I'm going to take a nap. Call me when you get someplace.”

It wasn't fifteen minutes later that she heard, “Wake up, sis. There's another roadblock up ahead. I can't turn around, so we have to go through it.”

“What's a roadblock doing on the Pennsylvania border, Stewie? You would think we were entering another country.”

As they pull up to the roadblock Steward says, “That's no cop. That's Ralph Butch from the Reserve Officer's Training Corp at school. He's in my Dynamics class. What's he doing here?”, and a moment later he was asking Ralph that to his face. “Hi Stew”, says Ralph, then asked, “How did you get out of ROTC road duty?”

“I haven't been to rotsee classes in two weeks Ralph. I called in sick. What is going on here anyway?”

“Oh, it's just a routine stop. We are supposed to be looking for guns. Major Gully said we are supposed to confiscate any weapons or large quantities of cash people are trying to get across the border.”

“Gully is just a senior in electrical engineering, Ralph. He's not even a real officer yet. He can't give orders like that -- even though he would love to give orders to everybody in the world.”

“He can now. He's part of Homeland Security. You are too. All of rotsee is now part of homeland. We even keep our ranks”, says Ralph grinning, “We have higher ranks than the local sheriffs. Boy, does that piss them off.”

“I gotta get home, Ralph. Can I go through?”

“Got any guns, Stew?”

“My shotgun is in the trunk. It's a hunting tool, Ralph. It's only a weapon if you are a deer. Don't try to take it.”

“Got a lot of money?”

“Yeah. I got a million bucks from robbing Professor Sooker of all the money he saved by never buying dandruff shampoo.”

Ralph laughs and says, “I just had to ask. There might be other checkpoints ahead, so don't tell them you have a gun or they will take it and I will be in trouble too. What can you give me for letting you through?”

“What? Ralph, how about if I give you a nice straight nose?”

“Already got one, Stew.”

“Then how about if I let you keep it straight?”

“Okay, you can go through, but be ready for the next stop. That guy might not be so generous. See you in class, Stew.”

When they are only a few feet from the roadblock Garnie says, “Why did you join that stupid rotsee anyway? It's like a bunch of kids playing soldiers. None of you are real military officers.”

“All engineers have to join. The college is called a land grant school. The military requires all engineers to join and the school agreed.”

“That's not right, Stewie. What do you get out of it? Why not just tell them to stuff it?”

“If I want to be an engineer at that school I have to agree. I only have the choice of going to a different school. I didn't have to sign the commitment until I entered my Junior year.”

“Oh no. What did you commit to?”

“That I would enter the Air Force and serve at least four years and be on call to duty until I was thirty five. In return the Air Force pays for my tuition, books, room and food plus they give me a monthly stipend of two hundred and fifty dollars for my Junior and Senior years after I commit.”

“Dad pays for your tuition. You could have said no , couldn't you?”

“Did you notice you have more money for clothes and stuff this year, sis? Dad doesn't earn more money. He just doesn't have to pay my tuition anymore, so he's giving you a few more bucks now. He gave me his old car as a thank you. That's why you don't have one. If you want a car you have to switch to engineering and two years later you will get an old car too.”

“This is a nice car, Stewie. I wished we had it the first year so I could have gone home to visit with my high school friends, but now I like my college friends better and don't even want to go home. Where I really don't want to go is to the cabin . That's way on the west side of Pennsylvania in the hills where the closest neighbor is a quarter mile away, who we don't even know other than that they have nine kids. Can you imagine living with eight other brothers and sisters, Stewie? That must be horrible.”

“I think that would be nice.”

“Boys say they would like a big family because they picture a bunch of brothers, but you never hear of a girl saying she would like a bunch of brothers. You know why, Stewie? Because all it means to a girl is a bunch of work. I don't even want to meet those neighbors, because sooner or later they will ask me to help in cleaning up after all those brothers. I won't do it.”

“Looks like an accident up ahead. Let's see if we can help.”

As Steward pulls up behind an old Chevy that is pulled up crooked behind the old Buick he notices there was no damage. Before he could drive away there was a man with what looked like a .380 automatic pistol aimed at him. “What ya got valuable, buddy?” he asked.

Steward was very nervous. “School books and a big teddy bear and a ham sub and a can of grape juice.”

“You got a little sweetie pie too. Can I borrow your girlfriend for a few minutes?”

“She's my pregnant wife.”

“I'll just take the teddy bear then.”

“No. It belongs to my wife.”

The man aimed the gun at Steward and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. Both looked at the pistol and seen the slide was locked back. Now the man was nervous too because Steward could see the gun did not fire. Steward reached for the door to open it. The man quickly hit the slide release lever, but in doing so also hit the clip release button and pulled the trigger … all at the same time. The hammer closed down with a “click”. Steward thought life stopped. He could not hear his sister scream but he knew she must be screaming. The flash seemed like it was slow in coming and never coming out of the barrel, but that is probably how time slows in death. He looked down the barrel to see the bullet coming, but only saw the clip drop out below the handle.

“What?” he thought. There was no bullet in the chamber. Steward quickly opened the door as the man bent over to pick up the clip and he pushed as hard as he could, hearing a whump , and the man lay there unconscious. The other man looked back from the Buick and started to get out. Steward quickly picked up the clip and grabbed the gun from the awakening man, inserted the clip and properly cycled a round into the chamber. He hollered, “You in the Buick. Leave. You here. Get out of your pants and leave also.”

“Hey, buddy. Give me a break. I have my wallet in these pants. Just let me go, okay?”

“You were going to shoot me if you knew how to use this pistol. You wanted to take my life and you think taking your pants is a high price?” Steward aims the pistol to the man's head and says, “Either you won't need them or you won't be wearing them. Take your pick.” The man drives away in his old Chevy without his pants.

Steward gets back in the car and is visibly shaken. He just sits there for a minute.

“Your pregnant wife? Steward, you are so sick. That is just gross to think that. Why did you tell that man I was your pregnant wife? That means we had sex. That is so sick.”

Steward looks down and asks, “Do you know what the guy wanted to borrow you for? Do you think he was going to use a rubber? Do you know most men don't want a woman if they think another man just used her? If you are still a virgin, sis…”, and he turns to her in anger to continue, “you can thank me who almost got a bullet in my head because of it.”

Garland just looked at Steward with an open mouth and quietly said, “I didn't know.”

Steward starts his Honda and pulls back out onto the quiet back road. “Dad said everyone was prepared for the crash and was expecting it. He said because of that it will happen very fast and only the stupid people who listened to the crap being fed us in the mainstream media would be hurt. Looks like he was right.”

A few minutes later Garland , still shy from being so wrong about her brother's intentions a few minutes ago asks, “What do you mean?”

Chapter 2

Steward pulls off the road about fifty miles later to call his father on the cell phone. He turns to Garland and says, “I'm going to have you talk to dad so he knows his little princess is okay. Don't mention anything about the guy who pulled a gun on us. We can tell him when we get to the cabin. We don't want to worry him for no reason.”

“Hi dad. Sorry for being late for the call-in. Garnie was talking away about such interesting stuff we just forgot about the time. We're half way there already. What does it look like out there … or should I say out here?”

For the next ten minutes Steward just occasionally said, “Yes. … Okay. ... Yup. … Right.” Then he said, “Garnie wants to say hi”, and hands her the phone.

“Hi daddy. Steward is taking good care of me. I wish we weren't going to the cabin. I'm really enjoying school. Well, we will see you in about three hours. Bye for now. Yes, we will be careful.”

Garland hands the phone back to Steward and says, “Daddy just kept saying he was sorry. It's not his fault the world is falling apart.”

“Who's fault is it, Garnie?”

“I would think it was the politicians' and bankers' fault.”

“Who voted all the politicians in over the past thirty years who cumulatively destroyed the economy and gave all the money to the already rich people?”

“It wasn't you and me, Stewie. We just got to vote in the last three years.”

“It was the people in dad's age group. They are the ones who let us down … them and their parents. In some ways even though dad has been forewarning everyone that this is what will happen he knows it was people his age that should have done something to prevent it, but they were benefitting from the system, so they didn't want to rock the boat. They just wanted to keep it afloat as long as they were moving in it. Now it's sinking and people our age who had nothing to do with wrecking the economy will pay the price. He knows that, and that is why he is sorry.”

“Dad wouldn't hurt anyone, Stewie.”

“Most of the people dad's age wouldn't hurt anyone, but together they hurt everyone. They thought the government soup kettle was a bottomless pit and they could use the biggest ladles to get however-much they wanted for themselves. They didn't stop to do the math. Dad did, but couldn't convince others to do it.”

“I feel sorry for dad.”

“Don't Garnie. Feel sorry for those who haven't prepared. Dad knew this was coming and prepared for it. I think a lot of people will not live through this. Remember that guy with the gun. He didn't know how to use it. That gun is just like my Colt .45 automatic that dad bought me and made me learn how to use. That saved my life, because I could operate it better than that other guy. That saved my life. That poor bastard would be dead along the road if he tried that on someone who was more desperate than he was. Dad's preparations saved my life.”

“And saved my virginity. Thanks dad. Hey, why did you want that guy's pants, Stew?”

“Most guys don't carry an extra pair of pants, so he is going to be hard pressed to explain where his went. Also I have his identification, so he may be worried I may turn him in.”

Garland looks through the wallet and says, “You could have at least let him keep his underpants. Ugh! That was an awful sight. Now, let's see here. Mike Sigl is his name. Here's a picture of him with an old lady. Must be his mother. Here's his driver's license. He's forty seven. Maybe that is just his ugly wife. He has, or had, a lot of money. Um … looks like four hundred and thirty seven dollars. Now why would a healthy guy like him who had money want to steal a twenty five dollar teddy bear from school kids?”

“Maybe because he's a life-long loser, or just because he didn't have a teddy bear. Why do you have one?”

“So I'm not lonely at night. Stewie keeps me company.”

“Stewie? The teddy bear's name is Stewie? Oh sis, who's sick now?”

“Well, it's just that we've been together for almost all our life and sometimes it seems funny when we're not. So I have a teddy bear to talk to. That's all. It's not like I do kinky things with it. He's just there like you always were, except he is never a pain in the ass like you were sometimes. Don't you feel alone sometimes?”

“Yes. Then I go visit some friends or do some calculus problems. Here's a gas station. Dad said to keep the tank topped off.”

The old attendant slowly walks up to the driver's window and says, “Good evenin' young man. A'fore I start pumpin' I gotta ask how'r ya gonna pay fer it.”

“Credit card or cash. Which one would you like, sir?” says Steward.

“Don't want neither one, son. Folks are sayin' no one's honorin' them credit cards and they say cash ain't gonna be good much longer.”

“What else is there?” asks Steward.

“I can take gold, silver, or somethin' that catches my eye like that teddy bear. Trade ya ten gallon fer it.”

Garland leans over to look at the man through the driver's window and says, “That's mine. It's not for sale.” The attendant smiles at her and she adds, “I'm his wife.” When the attendant keeps smiling she adds, “And I'm pregnant.” Steward looks down and shakes his head, then looks at the attendant and says, “I have a Silver Eagle. It's one ounce of pure silver. Will you trade around ten gallons for that?”

“Shore will, son. Gotta see it first.”

Steward reaches in the back to grab Garland 's bug-out bag, opens an inside pouch, pulls out one Silver Eagle and hands it to the attendant.

A few minutes later the attendant says, “Took twelve gallon, friend. Fair trade. Have a good day now.”

Before the old man could leave Steward says, “It was a good idea to let people know before you pumped the gas that you would not accept cash or a credit card. You would be out of luck if that's all they had after you pumped the gas.”

“Weren't my idea, young man. My grandson called me to say Joe at Joe's Friendly Service up at the college town got the idea from some nice young man whats stopped at his station. Joe's son put the suggestion on that internet thing to let everyone know ‘bout it. Then my grandson, who's always lookin' at that internet, looked up the values of silver money on that same internet an' told me. That's how I knew that eagle coin was worth at least fifteen gallon. Got me a right smart grandson. Good day to ya son.”, and he slowly walked back into the shed used as an office.

As Steward was leaving, thinking the internet really is fast and probably the reason his father knew the crash would happen fast, he hears Garland said, “What? What? It worked again, didn't it?”

“Garnie, that guy was over eighty five years old. He looked at you like you were his sweet little great grandchild. He couldn't have raped you even if he wanted to.”

“Well, it's always better to discourage him even if it wasn't necessary, right? … Right? … Oh never mind”, and then adds, “That was my money by the way, because it was in my bug-out bag. How did you know it was there? I didn't even know it was there. I looked in it and only saw candy bars and packets of water.”

“Dad and I packed the buggy bags. Dad thought of the items we might need and we packed most of the stuff in my big bag and some items in yours. Didn't you look in all the compartments?”

“I didn't know there were compartments. I opened the top and saw the candy bars and thought it just had stuff to eat in it. Good thing he slipped in a silver eagle.”

“There's ten of them in there along with some junk silver coins. In the compartment next to it there is a hunting knife. The next one is a small first aid kit. In the back is a zipper pocket that has an emergency blanket, extra pair of socks, and a thin plastic raincoat. All the other stuff is in mine.

“What is the first aid kit for ... in case I cut myself with the hunting knife? You would think Dad would put in something useful like maybe a kazoo so I could make some emergency music. I wouldn't ever need any of that stuff, Stewie. I didn't even like those granola candy bars much.”

“You ate them already? They were in case there wasn't any other food around. They were for when you were almost starving.”

“I do starve. On Saturday nights. All that's around are the vending machines in the dorm and most of the time I don't have any more change.”

“You could order a pizza.”

“When the pizza girl delivers a pizza all the other girls follow her to my room and I'm lucky to get one slice from it.”

“You have a girl deliver the pizza?”

“They know the address is the girl's dorm and they know no boys are allowed. If they want to deliver it and get paid they have to send a girl delivery guy.”

“How do you know it isn't just some horny guy with a wig?”

Garland thinks for a moment and says, “I don't know.”

“You better start telling the pizza girl you're pregnant, sis”, and Steward chuckles.

Both were quiet for the next half hour while Garland hummed classical melodies. She had a marvelous singing voice and could have her voice quickly jump from the soprano melody to the alto harmonizing melody. Steward thought that was odd when he first heard it, but after he got used to hearing her do that he enjoyed it and just smiled while he listened to her. She then hummed a lullaby that their mother sang to them when they were young. Their mother taught Steward the harmonizing melody and he hummed his part while his twin sister sang the words their mother sang:

There once was a boy

Who was blessed with a friend

There once was a girl

Who had a friend too.

They were close as could be

They would always be so

The boy was so strong

He protected the girl

The girl was so soft

Her thank you was dear

They were close as could be

They would always be so

If the boy were to cry

The girl would too

If the girl were to cry

The boy would too

They were close as could be

They would always be so

Cuz they were twins.

“Did you know mom made that song up and composed the melody too, Stewie?”

“Yup. You always ask that after we sing it.”

Garland asks, “You never explained to me why dad thought the crash would happen fast.”

“Gosh, that's a long story. I guess it starts by saying we have instantaneous communication now. People can do or say something on the other side of the world and if anyone sees or hears him he can tell the world by e-mail, twitter, cell phone or other electronic means of communication. The world knows what anyone does seconds after the person does it. It has never been like this before even though we've had similar money problems like we have now. Now, with the blogs and websites devoted to disseminating honest up-to-the-minute news, people can be instantly informed on political and financial news. The people are now more informed than the government thought possible and the government can't stay ahead of the people to keep them fed with whatever information they want to feed them. The independent blogs have intelligent citizens, just common people, disseminating the true information on what is going on in other countries. They are more trustworthy than the news media. Slowly more and more people started believing these honest people and not the news media who is still, even today, just telling the people what the government wants them to think, such as ‘Everything is going great, just as we planned.' The people now know different … and they know the government is just printing money to save the banks … and they know that would hurt the common citizen by making his savings worthless as the money they are printing is devaluing the dollar. Everyone now knows that pretty soon the dollar will be worthless and they are trying to protect themselves by not accepting paper dollars. I think the credit card people are still accepting the cards, because they have nothing to lose. The credit card people get a commission and charge fees and penalties which just keep going up. They also get the money first and then pay out inflated dollars to the merchants one or two months later, but I think the store owners who know they will not see their money for a while after they send in their claims are afraid the money they get will pretty soon not be worth anything. I think the store owners are not accepting the cards even though they are still good. That will be the thing that starts the crash. That and the fact that everybody knows it is coming and doesn't want to be left holding any worthless fiat money. So everybody is nervous, watching for the first signs of the crash they know is coming, and ready to run to the exits as soon as they see the first sign. Nobody wants to be the bag-holder. Dad predicted this was going to happen and that it may happen fast, but he didn't know which shoe would drop to start it. Now we know.”

“Bag-holder? Is that the proverbial someone left holding the bag?

“Yup.”

“Why doesn't the government just tell the truth about what is happening?”

“No government wants to tell the people they are screwing them. What could they say then? Sorry? The people would be at the White House with pitchforks and bonfires. They think they have to continue lying.”

“Even though everyone knows they are lying?”

“What would you do if it were you, Garnie?”

“Get out of town just like we are doing. Don't they know the people will be coming after them if this really crashes?”

“I think they think they can still solve this problem by printing more and more money, even though the smartest people who are able to analyze the situation say we are way past the tipping point, that there is no reversing it now and the crash is already in the cards dealt.”

“It's like the cards have been dealt, everybody is all-in and everyone knows everyone else is bluffing. Those hands never end well.”

“I didn't know you knew poker, Garnie.”

“If I studied all the time I would be an “A” student, Stewie. Dad thinks you are smarter than me. What would he think if I got better grades?”

“Engineering is harder, Garnie. It is harder to get a “B” in engineering than it is to get a “B” in Music.”

“It is not. You have one book in each of your subjects. I have to read fifteen books in Music History alone and they test us on all fifteen. You try doing that and getting a “B”. Your books teach you how to solve problems and for a test they ask you to solve problems. How hard can that be? My tests ask me what I remembered. That's harder than solving a problem after you were told how to solve the problem. That's why you guys are called “eggheads” and “Nerds”. You live in your own worlds thinking you are smart when everyone else just thinks you guys are weird.”

“Sorry, Garnie. I guess I always thought my problems were the hardest in the world because they were hard for me.”

“Oh, you're not weird, Stewie. I was just mad.”

“Don't tell dad you are really smarter than me”, as Steward looks at her with an apologetic look.

Garland chuckles and says, “Okay. That will be our secret. So what happens now, Stewie?”

“If no one accepts our money we don't have any money other than things people can trade with.”

“Like silver eagles and teddy bears?”

“We can trade anything other people want that have something we want. People can trade between each other if the other has something the other wants, but countries will have a hard time doing that. Countries will have to trade commodities to survive, Cities and States will crumble because people will not pay their taxes anymore, and the few that do will pay in worthless dollars since that is what the tax bill calls for. There will be no police, firemen, electricity, water service, or food at the grocery store. We will be on our own until the world develops a new monetary system.”

“Some of the girls in the dorm said their fathers said, ‘Why pay taxes. The government can just print the money.'”

The money the government prints and spends has to be paid back unless the country declares it is bankrupt. But then some real problems start.

Why will those services stop?”

“Because people like the cops and firemen will not work for free. Besides, they need gas for their vehicles. There won't be any.”

“Until it resets”, says Garland as she slumps in her seat.

“What do you mean, Garnie?”

“It's like on my computer. When I want a game to go back to the way it was I just click the Reset button.”

“There's no reset button, sis. I wish there was. … Oh oh. Cop behind me with the flashers on. I wasn't speeding. What's his problem?”

“Pull over Stewie, so he doesn't think you're running.”

“License and registration, young man”, said the state police patrolman. After looking at the driver's license he asks, “Mr. Hammond, do you have any weapons in the car?”

“Yes sir. I have my hunting shotgun and a .45 automatic in the trunk.”

“Do you have a license for the pistol?”

“Yes sir. Here it is.”

“This is a Pennsylvania carry license. Why is it in the trunk?”

“I have it disassembled for traveling. I'm bringing it from New Jersey where I don't have a license.”

Do you have any other weapons in the car? In particular, do you have a .380 automatic?”

“Oh yes. I forgot. This guy tried to rob us and I took his gun away from him. It's in the back seat someplace.”

“Is it loaded?”

“Yes sir.”

“Step out of the car and put your hands on the top of the car. You are under arrest for armed robbery.”

“He tried to rob me , officer.”

“That's not his story, and from the looks of it I tend to doubt a kid could take a pistol from a grown man unless he had a pistol of his own on him first. He said you stole his pistol, his wallet and even his pants. Do you have his wallet and pants also?”

“Yes sir. I took them to get his identification so I could turn him in to the police.”

“According to him it happened just inside the state border. You passed three towns where you could have reported the incident if that was your intention. Hands behind your back.”

“Follow me to the police station, Grarnie. I will need you to pay my bail”, says Steward from the back seat of the police car.”

“Armed robbery will require a lot of bail money, missy”, says the trooper as he drives off.

Steward sits in the police office waiting for the town judge to arrive. He is handcuffed to a heavy chair. Only the female dispatcher is there. “Quiet night?” asks Steward trying to start a conversation. She says nothing.

Steward waits in silence for another half hour when Garland finally comes in. “They searched the whole car, Stewie. They have the whole big bug-out bag with your guns and money. That cop said he hoped you weren't counting on using the money inside for the bail, because he said it was confiscated as evidence to make sure it wasn't stolen from the victim.”

The judge finally arrives. He was wearing an old army coat and his slippers. He made it clear that he did not like being awakened from his sleep, as he removes his coat to reveal he was still in his pajamas. He hands his coat to the dispatcher who hands him a small stack of papers, pointing to something on the top one. The judge reads it, shakes his head, and says, “Add terrorism to the charges. Take the handcuffs off and escort him to my chambers prepared to shoot if he makes any funny moves.”

Steward walks into the judge's office with the dispatcher eight feet behind him, her pistol drawn. As he enters, the judge, sitting behind his desk, chambers a round in his 9mm automatic and places it on his desk just to let Steward know he was ready to use it as a solution to any shenanigans. The dispatcher hands him another sheet of paper and leaves.

“Mr. Steward Hammond, a Junior in college, twin to Garland Hammond, you have been accused of armed robbery and are suspected of being a terrorist, how do you plea?”

“Not guilty, your honor.”

“Fifty thousand dollars bail. Trial will start in about five months.”

“ What?! ” hollers Steward. “I don't have that kind of money. And why would anyone suspect me of being a terrorist?”

The judge leans forward and says, “Didn't you come into this fine state of Pennsylvania on Route 80? There is a Homeland Security roadblock there confiscating guns. You passed through it with your weapons. That means you lied to Homeland Security. Only a terrorist might do that.

And did you or did you not stop at a certain Joe's Friendly Service gas station before you got to that roadblock, Mr. Hammond? And did you not suggest to the owner that he not sell gasoline, or anything for that matter, without first knowing how the customer was going to pay for the purchase? And did you not later suggest to ol' man Cribbins at his gas station that he accept only gold or silver and not good old American money. I know you did, because my dispatcher monitors all the area cell phone calls and e-mails on that internet. You gave that old man a shiny silver eagle as payment for gasoline, and that old man e-mailed his grandson telling him all about it. The only thing we don't know is if you bought regular or high test. We were given that equipment just so we would monitor all those calls. I have been given print-outs of what they told each other, where they describe you and your car, where Cribbins even wrote down your license plate number. You are trying to convince people that American money is no good. That is what a terrorist would do, and that is what I am suspecting you of, but of course you are being held for armed robbery. As far as your bail amount … it is supposed to be high so you don't run. You have a lot of reason to run, boy. You probably have a lot of them Al Qaida friends that would help you get out of the country too. Bail is now set at two hundred thousand dollars.”

“But you already set it at fifty thousand.”

The judge smiles and says, “I don't recall saying that. Can someone other than the perpetrator remind me of what I said? Gosh, no one but you and me in the room and you are not considered what would be called an unbiased witness seeing you would have an interest in the outcome. Bail is one quarter million dollars. See how easy I can do that?”

The judge picks up his pistol and says, “Turn around, exit the room, turn right to the end of the hall. Walk in the first cell and close the door.” The judge puts on his coat and says to the dispatcher, “See you in the morning, Marge.”

Chapter 3

Garland has been waiting in the car for Steward to come out, but when she sees the judge come out alone she knows Steward is not coming out. When the judge's car is out of site she walks into the police station and asks, “Can I see Steward?”

“No visitors until nine tomorrow morning”, was the reply.

Garland hollers as loud as she can, “Can you hear me Steward?”

From the back room she hears, “Garnie? I'm in jail.”

Garland hollers, “How can I get you out. This lady has a gun and she is bigger than me.”

“They set my bail at a quarter of a million dollars. They are holding me for armed robbery and being a terrorist. Even dad doesn't have that much money. I'm going to be stuck here for months.”

“You didn't do any of that stuff. What can I do, Stewie?”

After a long pause she hears, “I would even sacrifice our beautiful daughter to get out of here. Do you understand what I mean, Garnie? No one would let you hurt our beautiful daughter.”

Garland thought Steward was being irrational. Her brother was going crazy. They didn't have a daughter. He was her twin brother, for god's sake. She left thinking his mind has already snapped. The dispatcher just smiled.

Five minutes later Garland came back in carrying a blanket with a small baby in it … and she had her hunting knife aimed at the baby's throat. “Let Steward out or I will kill our baby and you will have to kill me, but both deaths will be on your hands”, she said shaking like a silk sheet in a summer wind.

The frightened dispatcher stood up quickly and said, “Don't hurt the baby. It didn't do anything wrong. I'll let the prisoner go.”

“Put your gun on the counter first”, demanded Garland

With the dispatcher now locked in the cell, Steward and Garland run to their car. Steward suddenly stops and says, “I gotta get my big bag. They put it behind the desk for evidence. I'll be right back.”

Steward runs back into the police station and hears the dispatcher call out, “Bill? Is that you Bill?”

Steward answers, “No. It's just me getting my bag. Can I get you anything before I leave?”

“No. Everyone will be coming in around seven o'clock. Then I have to tell them what happened. You only have eight hours to hide. We will be monitoring all of your cell phone calls so that won't help you. We know your address, so you know we will look there first.”

Steward stood there for a moment trying to think of what to do. All he could think to say was, “My sister would never hurt anyone. That was one of her expensive dolls in that blanket. Sorry to scare you.”

“I thought it looked like a doll, but I couldn't take the chance.”

“You are a nice person. I feel bad leaving you like this.”

“I'll be okay”, was the reply from the dispatcher who then said, “Hey Mr. Hammond. If you take the special fat plug from my computer that goes to the big grey box I won't be able to use the Homeland Security surveillance equipment to monitor your cell phone calls. That will buy you an extra day or two on the run. It won't help much but that's all I can do.”

“Thank you ma'am”, and shortly afterwards she hears the door close.”

Steward gets into the car and sees Garland putting a bandage on the forehead of her doll. “I scratched her forehead with that big knife, Stewie. I was scared in there. I had a fake baby but she had a real gun.”

“You did a good job, Garnie. I'm proud you were so brave. We have less than eight hours to get home, tell dad everything and get to somewhere to hide.”

“I thought the cabin was where we were going to hide.”

“The cabin is only where we would live if society broke down. We are being hunted by the law, sis. We don't need a place to live. We need a place to hide.”

“How do they know about the cabin.”

“From my driver's license … oh wait. That has our home address on it. That is where they will look. We will be safe in the cabin forever.”

Garland starts to cry. “I don't want to live in that cabin forever. I want to be with my friends.

Steward wanted to say her friends might not live through a societal collapse but thought the better not to. He let her quietly cry as he tried to drive only at the top of the speed limit so as not to draw attention. He calls his father, “Dad. Just a quick call to say we are a little behind schedule. We're still two hours away. We had a little trouble, but I'll explain when we get there. I just wanted to tell you we should switch to our two-ways with encryption. Let's use code 5. I'll explain then.”

Steward turns to Garland and says, “Would you get my two-way radio from the big bag. It is in a side pouch and looks like a walkie-talkie.” Garland just sits there. “Garnie, I need it to talk to dad. Please .” After five minutes of unzipping and inspecting a bunch of pockets in the big bag she says, “Here. Is this it?”

Steward turns on the phone and says, “Tweety bird on code 5 calling Poppa Bear. Come in Bear.”

He hears, “Poppa Bear on code 5. Checking the transmission. Hold. … Test please.”

“Tweety testing”, says Steward into the two-way, and hears, “The third phone on this channel without code 5 is spitting garble. We're clear Stew. It's scrambled. So what's the problem?”

“Dad, this is a horrible trip. It's like I'm going through some new country loaded with robbers and paranoid people. I was arrested as an armed robber and suspected of being a terrorist. I didn't do any of those things. Garnie helped me escape, but tomorrow morning they're going to know I'm gone and I'll be hunted. Should I go to the cabin or start running now?”

“I'm hearing the center of the money crash started just outside of your college town. Some guy named Joe who owns a gas station e-mailed a few other stations that credit cards were no good anymore and people should ask how customers will pay before the sale was made. Another station owner two hundred miles west of him went on the internet and said money was now worthless. That went viral and now no one wants federal notes all over the country. People are only trading for other things they may want. Everybody is going to the coin websites to find out how much gold and silver is worth. Most of the people say that is now the new money, and the sites buying and selling silver coins are running at peak load, some down from overload. Silver has gone from thirty dollars an ounce to three hundred and fifty in just six hours. Gold has stopped trading. Last spot price was three thousand dollars, but none of the gold sellers were accepting dollars and were only quoting an ounce of gold as so many ounces of silver. The ratio has dropped from one ounce of gold to fifty ounces of silver down to a one to nine ratio with folks thinking it's going to a one to one. Everyone wants silver because it will be the next everyday money. The stock market is down because everyone wants to sell but not for dollars, and no one wants to buy anything but gold or silver. The crash has started, son. I want you and your sister here. We have to be together now. There have been reports of people being robbed on the very roads you're traveling and of terrorists between here and your college. It's not safe out there anymore. Just come here as quick as possible. I knew it would spread fast, but I thought it would start with the big banks or in Europe , and I never thought it could possibly crash this fast. Come home, son. Poppa Bear out”, and the father hangs up.

Three hours later Steward is shaking Garland to wake her up. “We're home, Garnie. Let's go in and get some sleep in our beds.”

“Huh?… Oh, … we're here already. Boy, that addition made the cabin much bigger. It doesn't even look like an addition. It looks like it was built big right from the beginning.”

“There's eight bedrooms now instead of none, Garnie”, says her father sticking his head in the passenger window. “We tore the little cabin down and built the big one in the same place.”

“ Daddy , you scared me”, hollers Garland giving her father a hug. “What are you doing sneaking up on us like that?”

“We have to learn a whole new way of life after the crash, Pumpkin. We don't get many cars passing by since we are the last ones on this road. I have a detector just past the Hutton's place down the road to let me know a car is coming here. I won't know if it is a friend or foe, so I just run out here to hide so I'm ready for a foe, and if it turns out to be my lovely daughter I'm happy.”

“Why did you make eight bedrooms, Pop? There's only four of us. Mom having a baby?” asks Steward.

“Three of the extra are for supply storage and two for possible guests. If things get real bad we will need help in securing the area. I'm hoping two of my brothers will come here if it gets bumpy. We have two fireplaces in the cabin now … big ones that will eat a lot of wood this winter, so we might need the extra help right there. Now let's go in and make your momma happy too.”

That evening Steward and his father sat in the kitchen drinking beer, cleaning their weapons, and discussing survival tactics they might need, while Garland and her mother sat in the living room in front of a low fire singing ballads and children's songs. At ten o'clock Steward goes into the living room to say good night.

“You can't go to bed right now, Stewie. We need you and Pops for our last song”, and Garland starts singing Ave Maria . Steward and the parents sing along also, each singing their own harmonizing part to create a song more beautiful than Garland could have ever done alone. They sing this song about twice a year, and every time they do the men stand behind the girls and watch the tears come down their cheeks while they try to hold their own back.

Steward was the first one up the next morning. He came into the living room to find his father sleeping on the couch with his shotgun beside him. “Dad? Why didn't you sleep in your bed?”

“Oh, good morning son. It looks like I'm going to need a lot more practice at sleeping light. Someone could have rattled the pans while robbing us and I would have slept right through it. If I can't learn to sleep light I may have to have you or Garnie try it. We will need a twenty four watch to secure the place. Watching at night will be the toughest and I thought I should do that. I just need a lot more practice I think.”

“What's for breakfast?”

“I want everyone to try some of the MREs. I have a one year supply for four people and I have to know if everyone likes them or not. If they don't we will have to go to the store and buy a lot of whatever they do like. The stores won't have a supply of food for long, so we have to find out today if we need to get something more. Ahh, here come the other two stragglers. What do you ladies want for breakfast. We have chili, chicken breast, refried beans, …”

“Garland interrupts, “I always have fruit for breakfast, like an orange, a cluster of grapes, some melon, maybe an apple, or nothing.”

“Nothing for Garnie. How about you, dear?”

“I think we should prepare one of each kind of MRE and we all taste them all to see what we like.”

“Good idea.”

One hour later Steward and his father were on the one hour trip to the nearest Walmarket. “What happens if they don't take their own credit card, Pop?”

“I've got three thousand in cash on me and three hundred face value silver coin in the trunk. Quick, what is the silver value in that much coin?”

“Um, seven hundred fifteen ounces in a thousand dollar face value, so that's almost two hundred and fifteen ounces. What is silver selling for now … probably ten thousand dollars an ounce?”

“No one wants dollars for silver now, Stewie. I just checked the internet and silver is trading ten ounces to one of gold. That is what silver is worth. A new car is selling for three ounces of gold. You can get two thousand gallons of gasoline for one ounce of gold.”

“Where is someone going to put that much gas?”

“That's the beauty of junk silver coin. Quick, how much in junk silver coin would twenty gallons of gas be worth?”

“Um, two thousand for one ounce of gold, which according to the present ratio is ten ounces of silver, so twenty gallons would be only one tenth of an ounce of silver.”

“Now how much silver is in a dime of junk silver coin?”

“Don‘t know.”

“Yes you do, Steward. You know one thousand face value of any mixture of ninty percent silver coin is approximately seven hundred and fifteen ounces of silver, so what is one ten thousandth of that?

“Point zero seven one five ounces.”

“Good. Now you know you can expect to buy ten gallons of gasoline for a little more than a silver dime. Everyone will try to convert silver into dollars, calculate in old dollars and then convert back, but if you think in terms of silver you will be quick to see a bargain or a screwing. Warn the sellers if they are giving their stuff away and warn the buyers if they are getting a screwing. People will be preying on the old and the people unfamiliar with the new money. Try to help the innocent folks just like you were brought up to do.”

“Look at all the cars at Walmarket, Pops. Everything must be sold out already.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Look at that guy in the hunting jacket and the guy in the suit just going in. Wait. Wait a minute more. Now look. The guy in the suit just came back out all angry. Look at all the people standing around outside, all angry, carrying nothing. They probably thought they could buy their stuff with cash once they were in the check-out aisle. I think they are only taking precious metal for payment, and they probably still have lots of stuff. Our three hundred dollar face value of silver coin could probably buy out half of the store.”

As they walk into the store one of the greeters, none of which seem as friendly today as usual, says, “Sir, We are not accepting any credit cards or cash. We are only accepting the items listed on the sign here. Please do not shop assuming we will accept cards or cash once you have already made it to the check-out line. You will only have wasted your time and ours.”

Steward looks at the sign and notices it was hand written like it was made just before the store opened.

Walmarket is accepting only the following items as money:

40%, 90% and 100% silver coin and bullion

Gold, Platinum, and Palladium bullion

We will accept the following if it is clean and

accompanied by a manufacturer's data sheet

Copper, Brass, Aluminum, Stainless steels

Our suppliers may use offset to their invoices as money.

Walmarket will be posting pamphlets of the value of these items

Values will be based on one ounce of gold as the monetary unit

We will initially be using a ratio of one to ten for Silver.

Roger turns to his son and says, “Go back to the car and get all of the silver coin, Stew. I have two Gold Krugerrands on me. I'm going to make a quick purchase. Meet me at the check-out line.”

Steward comes right back and sees his father in the check-out line already. All the silver, weighing about six pounds, was sorted so the halves were in the right front pocket, the quarters were in the left front pocket, the silver dollars in his back right pocket, and the dimes in the back left. There were only five cashiers, four of which were the coin dealers all the way from Buffalo , New York . “I recognize three of those cashiers, Stew. I guess the regular cashiers could not be trusted handling the new money. Smart move on Walmarket's part, since their old cashiers couldn't even make the right change with the old money. Let's see how these guys do.”

Roger had ten reams of plain white copy paper and twenty boxes of crayons. “What are you going to do with that stuff, dad?”

“Give it to the folks outside.”

“Hello Stan. Slow at the coin shop?” asks Roger of the check-out cashier as he puts his items on the conveyor.

“Roger Hammond. You may be my best customer today. No one knows anything about gold or silver even though people like you and me have been telling whoever would listen just what to do before we got to this point. This is the worst job I ever had. People are getting mad at me like I changed the store policy. I had a tiny old lady who had the heart medicine she needed and only had federal notes from her social security money. When I told her they were no good she started crying and dumped everything in her purse onto the conveyor and said, ‘Is anything I have any good?' Well, she had her dead husband's gold wedding ring in her purse. I asked her if I could weigh it. That big guy's ring weighed a full half an ounce. I told her to hang on to it tight because it was worth about five thousand of the old dollars, and every day it will become more and more valuable. I gave her a silver dime and a war nickel. I took back the nickel and said it was to pay for the medicine and told her to shop for some food and supplies with the dime. I said, ‘Think of the dime as being almost one hundred dollars, buy what you need thinking of what the old prices were, and make sure you come to me for check-out' She looked at the two coins I gave her and said, ‘This is just old money.' I told her old money had silver in it that makes it real money, just like old people are better because they have more value. She gave me a kiss, Roger. She must have been ninety and it was the nicest kiss I ever got. Then she said her husband left her with a big old coin collection. She might be one of the few that make it okay.”

“How do you ring up stuff now, Stan?”

“We ring up the dollar price, which as you can see from the overlaid price sticker has gone up overnight, and then we tell the customer what the dollar amount is just like before. But now if we are given something like a ring or a silver locket for payment we test for the percent of silver or gold and weigh the item. Then we convert to dollars and if we have to give change we give the customer ninety percent silver coins. About the only difference in this job is the precision weigh scale added, plus now the cashier has to be an essayer of precision metals. Walmarket is going to price everything in ounces of silver as soon as they can.”

“That's why they hired coin dealers I see.”

“The Walmarket officials came to us for our knowledge and to buy all of our silver coins to make change. We are paid top buck and they gave us twice spot for our gold and silver coins. It looked like a sweet deal, but spot more than doubled afterwards, so Walmarket made out better. I hate being a cashier. How are you paying for the items, Roger?”

“Junk silver coins.”

“Sweet mother of Jesus. A customer ready for the new world. You owe sixty five of the old dollars, which means a really worn dime is close enough.”

“Here you go Stan”, as Steward hands his father a Mercury dime and who hands it to Stan. “I have to come right back to do some heavy shopping. What's moving fast?”

“Baby diapers and toilet paper. They've been moving from the shelf to here and back again when the people only have federal notes and can't buy them. We have a pretty good supply of the rest of the stuff, but I have a feeling we are going to be inundated tomorrow as soon as people find valuables to trade. Get what you need now, Roger. It may be your last chance for a very long time, as you already know.”

Roger goes outside where the crowd is milling about, puts the paper and crayons on a picnic table and climbs up on it. “People!” he hollers. “People! Please listen! This money problem is a big problem caused by the government and the bankers, but we can get through this by working together. Money has been used to pay people for what we wanted to buy so the people we pay can buy the things they need. Without money we just go back to trading what we have for what we want. How do you do that? … by letting everyone know what you have and what you need. Take a sheet of paper and a crayon and write down what you need. On another sheet of paper write down what you have to trade. Be sure you put your name and phone number on the sheets so people can contact you. Don't put your address on it because you may have something someone may want to steal … someone from a town far away because thank goodness there is no one like that in our town. One last important thing: Stay close to your family and neighbors. We all need to rely on each other. Good luck.”

Steward and his father went back into the store and filled the family Jeep. The bigger items were strapped to the carrier rack on top. They spent three thousand four hundred dollars and paid one silver eagle, two silver dollars, one silver half dollar and one dime. Roger and Stan agreed it was close enough. Roger copied the information on four trade notices now being taped to the Walmarket building's wall for things he thought they might want.

On the way home Steward says, “I'm used to going to classes and studying all day. What will I be doing now?”

“Oh, you're going to be so busy you will look at your old school days as a mental holiday, son. We have to do a lot more for ourselves now. See all the stuff we just bought? We may not be able to buy anymore for a couple years at the soonest, and maybe not in my lifetime. We will have to learn to make or trade what we need just like everyone else. The world has suddenly changed all to the worse.”

“Like changed to life as it was two thousand years ago.”

“Well, not that far back. Maybe a couple hundred years, but we all have a problem now that they didn't have two hundred years ago. We have a lot more people on the earth now. Not everyone can have a two hundred acre farm like in the old days where they could raise beef and have horses for the heavy work and a huge family to help around the place. Most of the people in the civilized world live in cities now. Many of them don't have skills that will be needed now.”

“Like accountants”, interrupts Steward.

“Think about people like drug dealers, old retired people who were living on social security, truck drivers, and for the time being people like accountants and bankers and politicians. There will be a lot of people who will have nothing to offer to earn a living. What can we do about all those people? They want to eat and have a place to live. What do you do with them?”

“Truck drivers will still have a lot of work.”

“No fuel for the truck.”

“Why not?”

Oil is priced in dollars. Dollars are no good, so soon they will be priced in other currencies or gold. Where does the primer load of that new money come from to get the wheels rolling … or I should say getting the gears turning?”

“The government has a lot of gold in Fort Knox . They can use that.”

Roger chuckles, “No they don't. The bankers have been manipulating the spot price of gold down for years with their mountains of short selling and they had to supply gold to every rich country who bought at that low price. Our government is broke in every sense of the word.”

Both were quiet for a few minutes when Roger said, “You and I may be set back two to three hundred years in our life styles, Stew, but many in our country will find this as a death sentence by either starvation, hypothermia, disease or murder by a desperate man. It's not going to be pretty, son.”

Chapter 4

Steward and his father put the purchases from Walmarket in one of the two storage bedrooms. Even the two guest bedrooms had stuff stored in them. The only difference was they had two full size beds and one dresser in each one. Every bedroom in the cabin was quite large, but even Steward's and Garland 's rooms had stuff stored in them.

“Let me show you something in my bedroom, Stew”, as Roger opens the closet in Stewards bedroom and slides the back panel out revealing a steel vault door. He turns the combination in the vault door, opens it and flips a switch for a bright LED light to turn on, revealing a ten foot by ten foot room with military rifles, ammunition, and a thirty six gun safe. “What do you think, Stew?”

“Wow!, But this looks like it is in my bedroom. What were you going to show me in your bedroom?”

“This section of the wall is a door to my bedroom. From the inside you only have to push this bar to open it.”

“The whole room looks like a gun safe. Why do you have another safe inside here?”

Roger punches in the combination to the electronic lock and opens the door to reveal the whole thing is neatly packed with Gold and silver bullion.

“Holy gosh, dad, how did you get this much?”

“Our house was paid for. When interest rates went below three percent I refinanced it for the maximum I could get for thirty years with no penalty for early payment of the principal. I used that money to buy this stuff. I've always been predicting this crash, because it was an easy extrapolation from the excessive spending by the government. I've been telling everyone it was coming and how to prepare. This is how I've prepared. Next week I'll be taking one million of the worthless federal notes to the bank to pay off the loan. Everything will be free and clear, except that this is our only home now. Oh, I also bought the four hundred acre farm that this lot was cut from.”

“Where are you going to get the one million dollars to pay the bank?”

I'm going to call Stan at Walmarket. I'm going to tell him to offer a mercury dime for one thousand fiat dollars from the customers. I will tell him I will give him a one ounce Kruggerand gold coin for a million worth and he could keep the difference for himself. He will jump at the chance. I paid twelve hundred for the Kruggerand when I bought it from him.”

“How are you going to get to your job every day in Buffalo from this distance?”

“I don't have a job. The company depended on new construction and there wasn't any for quite a while. Besides, how would they pay me … wire digital federal notes to my checking account as they used to do? We have to think of me as retired or as having a new job now. I'm now kind of like a handyman who's not good at anything, but willing to learn and try everything because I now have to. You are going to be my apprentice. Ordinarily I would ask you to consider the position, but I'm afraid you have no choice now. These jobs have been thrust upon us.”

“What will we be doing every day?”

“We take every day as it comes. We plan a schedule but have to be ready to change it at a moment's notice if necessary. This afternoon I want to take you and Garnie next door to meet our neighbors. It's important that we know each other and are ready to help each other. Your mom and I already met them.”

“What are they like?”

“You make your own opinion and let me know after you meet them.”

At the lunch table Garland objects to meeting the neighbors. “How many kids do they have now, more than the nine I heard? How old are they and how many brothers and sisters?” she asks.

“You will find out”, says her mother.

Garland looks like she has been sentenced to years of hard labor. “How come I just know the mother is worn out, the oldest is like an overly hormonal pimply-faced weirdo of sixteen, that they are all boys, and the house is cluttered with crumbs and old clothes and both the rat-ridden house and the bug infested kids, which probably all have bad teeth, smell like rotten cabbage in a septic tank.”

“Good guess, Garnie”, chuckles her father, and adds, “Maybe you could offer to help clean up.”

Garnie has tears coming down her cheeks. She puts her head on the table and says, “I hate this wilderness.”

At four o'clock sharp, just at the time he said he would arrive, Roger is driving their jeep up the wide driveway of their neighbor who lived way off the road. The neighbor's cabin was a quarter mile from the road on a winding driveway. Finally they came to a large well kept lawn and further on they could see the cabin.

“Omigosh. That looks like a log cabin palace!” exclaims Garland . “And look at all the big barns. That father must be rich.”

“He's was the maintenance man in our office building, pumpkin. He was also the night maintenance man at Walmarket. Wait till you meet that little ball of fire. He's always doing or making something.

“Yeah, like making more kids. How can he do all this stuff himself?”

“Well, he has a little help from one or two of his toddlers.”

Roger knocks on the front door and it opens almost immediately. “Our neighbors the Hammonds!” exclaims the short thin man in his fifties who opens the door. “Come in Roger and Millie.” He looks at Steward and Garland saying, “Welcome to our home children. My name is John Hutton and this is my wife Betty, but you can call me Shorty and my wife Margret if you like. This must be the beautiful daughter Garland I've heard all about, and this guy must be Steward. Thank you for coming.”

As they enter the big living room Garland hears music coming from one of the rooms in the back. She whispers to Steward, “This cabin is bigger and cleaner than ours.” Steward whispers back, “I can't even detect a little rotten cabbage smell. Must be they use a big Air Wick”, and Garland gives him an elbow in the ribs for that remark.

John goes to a panel by the living room entrance and says, “Excuse my children for not being here to greet you. They get involved with their own interests”, and he speaks into the panel saying, “Our guests are here.” Suddenly the music stops and the children enter the hallway just outside the room as they were taught from the first time they could walk.

John stands by the entrance and introduces his children as they come in, the other children waiting around the corner until the introduction is finished:

This is John junior, my eldest. He is twenty nine and has his doctorate in Biology

This is Jason, number 2, He is twenty seven and has his doctorate in Electrical engineering

This is Peter, number 3, He is twenty six and was finishing his Medical degree until yesterday

This is Leonard, number 4, He is twenty five, has his masters in agriculture, and runs our farm.

This is Karl, number 5, He is twenty four and has a masters in music.

This is Martin, number 6, He is twenty three and was working on his masters in mechanical engineering until yesterday.

This is Donald, number 7, He is twenty two and has a Bachelors in Chemistry

This is Jane, number 8. She is twenty one and has a Bachelors degree in Economics.

And this is our baby Nydia, number 9. She is eighteen and was a junior in Home Economics until yesterday.

All of the children were standing in a line in front of the Hammonds who were sitting on the huge couch. The Hutton children were all tall, trim and very well dressed. John says, “Here's what they are called here”, as he point to his eldest then on down: “Johnathan, Jasper, Peterous, Leopold, Carloochi , Martoneus, Donaldo, Janikins, and Pookie. Another way to know them is”, and again he starts by pointing to his eldest, “Trumpet, drums, Flute, cello, Piano, Accordion, Guitar, and Violin. Pookie plays the throat. She is our singer when we need just one really good voice. Oh, I forgot to add, I'm banjo and Millie is the Baby Harp.”

I don't think I've ever seen a Baby Harp”, says Roger.

“You probably won't”, says John. “Jason and Martin designed and built it. It creates the sounds of a harp but is electronic. They made a small version of a harp in balsa wood to hold the electronics so it looks like a baby one but sounds like a big one

Garland said, “What an amazing family”

Pookie said, “It must be wonderful to have just one brother.”

“Oh no”, said Garland , “I always said it would be nice to have a lot of older brothers.”

“No you didn't”, says Steward. “You said it would be just a lot of work for you. You thought it was going to be all dirty little ragamuffins here that you would end up having to clean”, and then he realized the truth wasn't always welcomed. “Oooops. Sorry”, he added.

John's children all laughed and came over to hug an embarrassed Garland and shake hands with Steward. That slip-up of Steward's was all they needed to break the ice and become instant friends.

Millie Hutton says, “Dinner is almost ready. Would you like to help me and Pookie finish it, Garnie?”

Garland was amazed at the size of the kitchen and the cleanliness of the large appliances, but that feeling was eclipsed when off to the side of the kitchen she saw of the elegance of the enormous dining room. “This isn't anything like I thought how a family of nine kids would live”, she said softly.

“We didn't always live like this, Garnie”, said Millie as she peeled the boiled potatoes. “We were young when we started having the boys. We didn't have any money at all after we bought the things we needed. All we had was Shorty's ambition and endless energy.” Millie smiles and adds, “Shorty would say all we had was my knowledge on how I wanted to raise him and our children. Maybe it was a little of both. At any rate, the first boys born never forgot they had to clean up any mess they made. They hated cleaning so they tried not to make a mess. The younger children learned from the older ones. Their father also taught them to learn as much as they could so they could help out around the house better and so they would end up being smarter than we are. The children have done much to help us get everything we now have. They are now all smarter than we are and we are proud of them all”, and she smiles at Garnie.

That evening was a turning point in Garland and Steward's life. Their life was turned upside down by the financial crash and they knew they would have to live in their cabin in the semi-wilderness for a very long time, but it took the crash for them to see what life was really all about and how to live it. They felt honored to have the Huttons for neighbors.

The next morning Garland woke up earlier than usual. She had an orange for breakfast knowing it may be one of the last she might see for a long time. She then started cleaning everything in the cabin to see if she could get it as nice as the Hutton's cabin.

Steward was awake early also, ready to do something. He didn't care what it was as long as it was important and would end up making him more like one of the Hutton boys. He seen his father chopping firewood and thought he could also do that to help, but his father had already planned his day. “Good morning Stew. Today we set up a perimeter surveillance system. It's going to take us a couple days, so let's get started. We are going to have motion detectors to turn on an alarm in the cabin and two cameras on the road that turn on with motion detectors. We have a lot of line to bury.”

“Why do we need that stuff?”

“People are going to run out of food in a few weeks. We will also need to heat the cabin in a few weeks. The smoke from the fireplace will send a message for miles around that there may be food at the end of that smoke. Hungry fathers would kill a stranger for food to feed his family.”

“When did you learn all about surveillance systems?”

“Jason Hutton is going to help us hook it up after we run all the wires. You remember Jason, the one who plays the drums, the PhD Electrical Engineer?”

“Shorty has a lot of respect for you, doesn't he? Why? I mean, he is like higher in deserving respect than even you are.”

“First of all I want you to call him Mr. Hutton. Yes, he deserves my respect more than I deserve his, but that is the type of guy he is. He respects everyone. He started his maintenance job at the office building the same week I started as an engineer fresh out of college. I always said ‘Good Morning Mr. Hutton' when I saw him come in to work. He told me later that he thought I was the nicest person in the world to give a lowly maintenance man the respect I did. I told him I was one of many engineers in the firm, but he was the only maintenance man they needed, so he was more important that I was. We have always been friends after that. He was the one who told me about this place next to him, and his daughter Jane, the Economics expert, told me how to refinance my house after I told her how I thought the economy would collapse.

The next day they finished laying the wire just before lunch when two State Trooper cars drive up to the cabin. In the first one was the trooper that arrested Steward on the highway. In his car was the judge. The other car had two troopers who stood by their car with the doors opened and shotguns trained on Steward. “Come along peacefully Mr. Steward Hammond or you will be coming along dead”, hollered the judge.

Steward asked, “How did you find me so quick?”

“We just searched the property records for all people named Hammond and then looked for a Steward Hammond. You were the only one. Others seem to know Steward should be spelled with a ‘t' at the end.”

Steward raised his hands, the trooper handcuffed him and he was taken away in the patrol car.

Roger followed the patrol car to the county jail where Steward was placed in solitary confinement as a hostile prisoner arrested for armed robbery and for being a terrorist. His father did not have the two million dollar bail set on Steward and could do nothing but wait for the court date. The judge said, “No need to wait for your son, Mr. Hammond, because he will be convicted of escape anyway. Just say goodbye to him for, let's see, how does two years sound?”

Roger says, “Two years for just walking out of jail when no one got hurt?”

The judge smiled and said, “Make that ten years. See how I can make it whatever I want?”

Roger still waited, hoping there was something he could, but if nothing else he at least let his son know he was with him. At eight o'clock that night a large armored military vehicle drove up to the jail and out came what looked like two fully decked-out ready for combat SWAT team fighters. They slammed open the front door to the police station. The shorter soldier hollered, “We are from Homeland Security. We understand you are holding a terrorist. Terrorists are in our control. Hand him over for interrogation and shipment to the Guantanamo holding facility.”

Roger's heart dropped, for he knew once his son was in Guantanamo he could be held forever with no chance of him seeing him again. The arresting trooper refused to release his prisoner. The taller military man raised his AR-15 and aimed it at the trooper. The trooper led the shorter military man to the holding area and opened Steward's cell door.

The military man hollered, “You've arrested a Homeland Security officer, you dimwit! This is Major Hammond of the Northeastern Sector. He's one of my officers. He's no more a terrorist than you are a brilliant person, you imbecile. Get out of my site while I find out what really happened from my officer.”

When the trooper was gone the military man raised his one-way face shield and said, “Hi Stewie.”

“Ralph! What are you doing? You're going to get me in worse trouble.”

“That's Colonel Gully out there.”

“Colonel? I thought he was just a pretend Major and we were just pretend Second Lieutenants?”

“We were promoted. Gully was promoted to assistant overseer of the Northeast sector and needed more officers under him. He said you should have a higher rank than me because you were a “B” student and I was only a “C”, so I'm now Captain Butch. This job is really interesting. We can get anything we want and do anything we want. Wanna see me give that trooper a hard time? He's just a deputy and a State employee. I could even shoot him if you want me to. We don't have anyone who can go over our heads.”

“The trooper was just doing his job, but that judge was making his own laws. Look into that for me. Also there is a guy named Mike Sigl who I think is a real terrorist. Maybe you can send him to Guantanamo until he confesses.”

“Will do buddy. The judge will be taken to the jail next county over and held for five months and then released. No charges have to even be placed on him. We will just put five months on his ticket and then let him go with a warning he will be watched. I'll put him on the ‘no fly' list too as a joke. Your man Mike will not be seen again. Now go say ‘Hi' to Colonel Gully, but remember he is gung-ho , so act like you are really in the military. You are actually in something more powerful than the military and Gully is playing that roll to the hilt. Good to see you again Stewie.”

Steward was told he would need to be brought up to date, since he had not been to a ROTC class in over two weeks. The three officers held a meeting inside the large troop carrier Ralph drove into town. “Major Hammond. As you know the Coast Guard has been made part of Homeland Security. The President of our country wanted to make all non assigned military part of Homeland also, but there was a problem. That problem is that all of the personnel swore to uphold the Constitution and there it says the military cannot be used against the civilians even if they riot. To get around that Homeland has absorbed the ROTC, because we have not sworn yet and can handle civilian unrest. With the economic collapse we will be needed to control all aspects of society from riots to food distribution, from mutiny to medical care. We will be essentially running the country now. It's a big job, but I … I mean we can handle it. When can you join us?”

Steward says, “My mom is really sick and my father needs me to take care of her. Can I let you know later when I'll be free?”

“Can we make Stew like an under overseer of the Western part of the Northeast sector, John?” asks Ralph.

“Good Idea, Captain Butch. Let it be so. You will run the Western end of Pennsylvania , Major Hammond. Here is my card with my e-mail address and cell phone number to report in if you need anything. Here is your HS Identification badge with your school picture on it. I've been carrying it around ever since I promoted you. You may leave now.”

“Thanks, John. Thanks Ralphie”

“Are you forgetting something Major Hammond?”

“Oooops. Sorry.” Steward stands up and salutes, saying, “Permission to leave, Colonel Gully.”

“Permission granted, Major Hammond.”

On the way home Steward tells his father all that was talked about. “Doesn't that scare you, Steward?”

“Why would it.”

“What kind of person is Gully?”

“He gets all A 's in school. He's pretty smart.”

“How about your friend Ralph?”

“He gets C 's. He's a nice guy but not real smart.”

“Now what kind of person is the judge?”

“He's an evil egomaniac who makes up his own arbitrary sentences.”

“And what kind of person is that Mike Sigl?”

“He's stupid.”

“What is the difference between Gully and the judge? What is the difference between Ralph and Mike?”

“Oh, that's easy. Gully is … um … I mean, the judge threw arbitrary long sentences … um … Well, Gully is nice to me and the judge wasn't.

“So the judge loses five months of his now ruined life and Mike goes to the worst jail for probably the rest of his life? Why? … because they weren't nice to you? Don't get me wrong, Stew. I hate that judge, but all the sentences on both sides seem to be established out of revenge and the fact that the one seeking revenge has the power to do so. Another thing that bothers me is that the ROTC men are quite willing to use force on the civilians. Don't they know we have them surrounded? I don't care how powerful their equipment is; civilians always win in a war against their government. What are there, about one million in ROTC? There are over three hundred million civilians … civilians that run the country from providing clean water to providing food and energy. All a confrontation will produce is death to innocent people on both sides. This has not been a good day, Stew. We didn't even get the surveillance equipment hooked up. Tomorrow I have you scheduled to drive the dump truck while Leonard harvests beans to pay back Jason who was supposed to hook up the equipment today.”

“Leonard Hutton?”

“Yes. He's the one who runs the farm.”

“Oh yes. I remember him. Leopold was his nickname. Did you notice their nicknames were longer than their real names?”

Roger smiles and says, “Yes. That shorty is unique. Before I forget, this week end we are meeting with John Jr., Peter, Leonard and Pookie to review our food storage methods and food preparation methods.”

“Food preparation methods? You mean cooking?”

“Yup, cooking. They are going to show us the different tastes depending on how the food is stored. They will show us how to store food and cook it too.”

“Mom won't like someone showing her how to cook food.”

“Pookie was a Home Economics major until she was pulled from school like you were. She cooked that meal we had the other night. Your mother asked her a few questions trying not to just ask outright for the receipe, knowing most ladies don't want to give away any secrets. Pookie just gave her the receipe and said she would show your mother a lot of them she learned in school. We're combining that session with one all about food before it gets cooked. Well here we are home again. Wait! There's someone who just stood up in the back yard. He's got a rifle. Do you have your pistol on you, Steward?”

“No, but that looks like Karl Hutton.”

“By golly you're right. What's he doing snooping around?” and as Roger pulls up to the house he hollers, “Hello Karl. Doing some midnight hunting?”

“No sir. Father knew your girls were home alone and asked me if I would keep an eye on your place. I was inside when I heard your motion detector go off when you passed our driveway, so I was just being cautious.”

“What were you doing inside the house, Karl?”

“Playing with your daughter Garnie, Sir.”

“What?!”

“She was playing her violin and I was playing the piano with her. She is quite good, Sir.”

Roger walks inside with Karl and Steward following him. “We don't have a piano, Karl.”

“I brought my own. It's right here”, as he shows Roger a keyboard only. “Jason and Martin designed and built it after they made Mom's Baby Harp. It's all electronic. I told father I would be right home after you arrived”, and he turns to Garnie and says, “I would like to do more accompaniment and duets with you again if you would like, Garnie.”

Garnie smiled a smile that only her family would know it was one they never seen before. “I would like that Karl” she said softly.

“Do you need a ride home, Karl?” asked Steward.

“No. I take the back route through the fields.”

“It's dark out there. You'll trip and hurt yourself.”

“Not with these”, as he puts on a hat that looks like it was made of electronics and flips down what looked like a stubby pair of binoculars, and adds, “Night optics. It's just like daylight with these on.”

“Don't tell me. Jason and Martin designed and built them”, says Roger.

“Nope. Mail order from The Night Vision Store. Cost almost Eight hundred dollars.”, and Karl leaves.

Chapter 5

The next month was relatively quiet near the cabin. The snow had started in the hills. Roger bought four cords of firewood because he did not have enough time to cut and split his own. Steward was learning leather crafts and Roger's wife Millie was learning more advanced medical care … from the Hutton boys of course.

Garnie was mostly in her room that month screaming … well, actually, trying to get to a solid and beautiful high high C as Pookie could do. Garnie only quit trying when all her family reminded her that Pookie could not play any other instrument, that her throat was the only musical instrument she had, and if she was bettered at singing she would have nothing. Then Garnie quit trying to be better than Pookie, conveniently just as she got laryngitis. She then tried to be much better at the violin than Jane, until one day her violin was kidnapped with a ransom note that it would only be returned if it was used for enjoyment. Garland never knew who kidnapped it but was correct in assuming it was either her father or mother or Steward or all three in collusion.

The Hammonds have now become such good friends with the Huttons that they would combine some of the work they both did, such as watching the news on television and keeping in touch with the trustworthy blog sites for the latest news on the effects of the crash. The cities were in turmoil. People had already rioted the first two weeks of the crash. There was nothing left in the stores and no reason left to riot other than to protest the government. The police had been invisible on the street from almost the beginning of the crash, for they had families to feed and didn't even bother to show up for work, since they would only be paid in worthless dollars. There were no city employees, since there was no money, no real money that is, to pay them. Just as Roger had predicted years ago, the governments of towns and cities to the Federal level had no one working. The old people hid in their houses with some sort of weapon at hand. The rich people fled the country. Those that prepared were mostly living in what Garland called the wilderness. The young people in the cities were turning into killers. It is human nature that everyone would instinctively kill to survive, but the young people carried killing to a point where it was a pastime … something to do while they looked for food and water. The dead bodies, whether from murder or starvation or disease, gave every big city the stench of death. Even the young people wanted to leave, but where could they go? Where? … to the country where food is grown and stored.

It does not take a genius in the winter to figure out where people are living. There are car tracks and footprints in the snow. There are roofs with no snow on houses with electrical heat. There is the noise of a generator where there is no electric available. And of course there is smoke from the chimney.

The Huttons had a huge cabin. They needed it, but it took four fireplaces to heat it. They were aware of the message that smoke sent to the world and they were aware they were sending four times the normal amount that could be seen four times further. They were now concerned for their friends the Hammonds who only had four people to guard their home. They knew anyone capable of stealing would be crafty enough to try it at the most convenient time, but some might pick the darkness in the depth of nighttime and some might pick the daylight when the men most likely would not be home. For that reason the Hammonds had to now have a watchperson at all hours, but all the Hammonds knew the men would make the better guards. The Huttons knew they had more men and John offered the assistance of two of his sons to his friend Roger to utilize at a time of day of his choosing. Roger suggested he take up John's offer for only one week while they set up a cross surveillance system where each cabin can watch both cabins. John said he could get all the equipment they needed the next day.

It took less than one week to install the new system using all the men from both families. Roger asked, “How did you get this expensive stuff so quick in these times, John?”

“From the engineering building where we used to work. I'm still the registered maintenance man there, so I have a right to access any of the equipment in or on the building. Don't worry, I will return it when the economy comes back. A lot of the common stuff in the building has been wrecked or stolen. Here's a few Hershey bars from the vending machine in the executive dining room. I thought I should test them all to make sure the uppity mucky-mucks don't eat them and get sick”, and they both laugh.

The cross surveillance wasn't installed too soon. One night the alarm goes off in the Hammond cabin letting them know two vehicles passed the Hutton driveway on their way to the Hammonds . Steward quickly looks towards the monitor and sees from the camera at that site that there is only one car. It had backed past the motion detector again and turned into the Hutton's driveway. Steward quickly calls the Huttons on his cell phone. “An old car is coming up your driveway. May be hostile. I'll be on code 5 on the two-way.”

Jason Hutton says, “Whether it is a friendly or a hostile all we needed was your warning. Thanks. I'll let you know what happens. Out.”

The Hutton cabin was completely dark when the car pulled up. The driver could not see the twelve cars of the family parked in the big barn. The place looked deserted. There were several people in the car but only the big burly driver got out. He walked to the front door and knocked lightly. He waited for one half minute and knocked loudly, waited for three minutes and then took a large hunting knife from its sheath and quietly broke the window in the door until a small hole was made to allow him to reach in and unlock the door. Using a flashlight he walks slowly through the house until he finds the kitchen. He looks inside the huge refrigerator, takes out a folded sheet of paper and writes:

My name is Daniel Gressam

I have borrowed some food for my family

I have no money to pay you right now other than with this one hundred dollar bill

Please forgive me. I hope you have extra for your own family

He places the note on the counter with the hundred dollar bill and takes a cooked chicken, a gallon of milk and a head of broccoli, closes the door and hears, “There are some nice apples in the lower bin.”

The thief quickly turns around to see only darkness. He was relying on the refrigerator light and had put his flashlight next to his note. He reached for the flashlight in the dark but it was gone. Suddenly the bright kitchen lights came on and he could see the man behind him … a Martian-looking man with three other men with shotguns aimed at him and still another man having his finger on the light switch.

“I'm sorry!” hollered the thief. “I only wanted enough for my family.”

“There are some nice apples in the lower bin”, says Karl taking off his night optics. “Take half of them for your family. You are an honest man who needs food and we have some extra right at the moment. What did you used to do for a living?”

“I was a laborer in construction. I've been doing odd jobs like digging septic tank holes and drainage ditches, but people pay me in paper money which won't buy anything. For the last two weeks I've had to steal food for my family and gas for my car. I knew I might be shot someday, but what can I do?”

“Would you work on a farm for food and shelter?”

“Yes, sir. Yes I would.”

“That's all you would get is food and shelter, but your family would survive and have a future if the economy ever picks back up. If we caught you stealing afterwards you would leave here to go back to stealing … perhaps from a house that would just shoot you first. Then you wouldn't have a family anymore. Do you understand?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

Karl turns to John and asks, “He can put up in the shed connected to the heated chicken coop, can't he?”

“How many are in your family”

“My wife and two little daughters who are two and three years old.”

Karl says to John, “I could show him where it is and set him up. They will need warm blankets.”

John looks to all the brothers who each nod their approval. Karl left with Daniel hoping the new farm hand would be no trouble.

Karl stayed with Daniel watching them devour the cooked chicken like the half starved people they were. The little girls, Sonia and Rachael, shared an apple and drank the milk like it was the only liquid they had today, smiling at Karl after each gulp. “Daniel”, started Karl, but was interrupted with, “Please just call me Dan and my wife Sue, sir.”

“You can all call me Karl”, but again was interrupted by the smiling girls who said, “Hi Karl”. They were shushed by their mother who smiled at Karl also.

“What is the city becoming, Dan?”

“A Hell hole. There used to be riots and fighting in the streets, but after two weeks the people realized they were wasting their valuable time. They realized they were slowly dying of hunger, so they then concentrated on finding water and food … and guns. They wanted guns to take the food by force from those who had it. The dead bodies of innocent people like the old and the weak are rotting in the city right now, every item of any value has been stripped from their property. We could not stay there. I have a twelve gauge shotgun in my car that I used to kill two kids trying to steal my car while my family was still inside. They were only about fifteen, but both had 9mm pistols. The pistols are also in my car now. I have no use for them if you want them”, and Dan stops chewing, adding, “I never hurt anyone before in my life. I've always been big and strong for my age, but my parents said I was big to protect people … not to hurt them. I feel so bad for the parents of those kids. I'm glad I didn't know them or it would be worse. I can say this for sure, anyone now in the city who has a car is leaving the city. Be ready for people worse than me coming here. There are people who will shoot you just to see if you have anything they can use.”

Karl stands up and says, “I'll get you at sun-up. The first thing we're going to do is replace that window you broke. Then we are going to install a heater in here. It shouldn't go below fifty in here tonight, but keep those girls covered.

The next morning at sun-up Roger hears a knock on his door. He knew the only ones who could get to his cabin without the detectors going off were the Huttons, so he answered the door without his sidearm drawn.

“Good morning, Roger”, says John. “How come you don't have your pistol in your hand? What if I was someone who just cut the line?”

“Sorry. I was pretty sure it was one of you Huttons. What can I do for you, friend?”

“Since there are no postmen I had to deliver this invitation myself”, says a smiling John as he hands him a hand written envelope with a picture of a stamp drawn on it having wiggly lines like it was cancelled at the post office. “My son John is getting married this Spring and this is an invitation not only to the wedding but also an invitation to help us build his house.”

“Can the whole family come to the house building?” asks Roger laughing, and adds, “Where is he building his house?”

“We would like to build it next to mine, maybe two hundred feet west of mine.”

“Um, Isn't that my property, Shorty?”

“We wanted to have him build it on the East side of my property, but that is one mile away. We are afraid to have him that far during these times, so we thought we would try to buy a couple acres from you, but then Janikins, you know, my Economics girl, suggested we ask you if we could just lease the land until it was safe to build where we want to. Then Pookie suggested we don't pay you anything for using the land but instead give you the house when we build where we want. So what do you think, Roger? Can we encroach on your property for a couple years in trade for a pretty nice house?”

“How would it be if I just gave you or your son the property as a wedding gift?”

“Your son and daughter may need a house right about the time we would be giving it up, Roger. Think about it. You would be helping us out and would be saving a lot of money.

“Have you noticed Steward has been giving Pookie a special smile, John? Of course you can build there.”

“Yup. Noticed that. Maybe I'll be giving you just half of that house. The family is home waiting to hear your decision. I'll let them know we can start. ”

Dan hears a knock on the shed door an hour after sun-up. Karl, standing in the doorway, says, “Sorry I'm late. We had an unexpected meeting this morning. While we were waiting for the news we needed, my brothers fixed the window. What do you know about building a house from scratch, Dan?”

“Everything but how to design them. I've dug foundations by hand, poured cement, laid block, framed the house, made and installed the roof A-frames, shingled and painted and even did the landscape work at the end. I built a beautiful house for my wife, but it was burned down when I confronted a gang of thugs with my shotgun.”

Karl smiles, puts his hand on Dan's shoulder and says, “There may be an extra chicken in this for you when we're done. We are going to start my brother's house today right after we run electric to the shed and install an electric heater. In the meantime, bring your family to the cabin for an oatmeal breakfast.”

Dan could not believe the elegance of the dining room. He was afraid to enter and then afraid to sit in the chair with his old clothes. Jane and Pookie just adored the little girls who were constantly smiling.

“They weren't always smiling”, said Sue, their mother. “They have been in the back seat of the car for the past week crying all the time. They even had to go to the bathroom in a coffee can. At least now they can go in the field next to the shed and know it is safe.”

“I never thought about a bathroom”, says Karl. “How can we fix that? We have water to the chicken coop that we can run into the shed, but there is no septic system even close to the shed.”

“The field is fine for us”, said the mother. “The shed makes a fine house for us, and with the heater it will be perfect. I cannot thank you all enough.”

“Can they stay in the cabin today, mom?” asks Pookie. “I never had a little sister to play with.”

“And I never had two”, adds Jane.

“Would you like to help me can cabbage today, Sue?” asks Betty Hutton.

“Yes, I know how to do that. I would love to help”, was the reply.

“Were you raised on a farm?” Betty asks.

“No. I was the host on the TV program What is Susan Cooking Today? You probably never heard of it. I didn't even get paid for doing it. I think we only had the staff's family as an audience, but we did everything that a housewife might want to learn. I learned a lot from doing that program. We had experts come in for every program. They didn't get paid either. Did you ever hear of the program?”

“I think I may have heard of it”, says Betty.

“Really? You honestly did?” asks an excited Sue.

“Well, … no not really honestly. I'm sorry. I never watched television much.”

Sue smiled and said, “You can't get the program out here.”

When Karl and Dan went to the site where the house was to be built there were two huge trucks loaded with gravel waiting to unload. Karl went to the pile of hand tools and picked up a big shovel. He seen where the driveway was marked out and saw it was going to be a long driveway. He estimated about one hundred thousand pounds of gravel that the trucks carried had to be spread today. He was certainly going to earn his keep. He pointed to where he wanted the first pile dumped and heard Karl say, “Whoa Dan. This has a conveyor.” The truck driver climbed onto the back of the truck, turned on a hydraulic pump and a long conveyor extended past the end of the truck. The conveyor started running at the speed set by the operator. The conveyor could run at a tremendous speed, and when it was at its fastest speed the gravel started dropping onto it and flew out fifty feet in the air. The operator motioned for Dan to step off the driveway markings, then raised the angle of the conveyor, and Dan seen the gravel shoot over one hundred feet in the air down the new driveway. Both trucks were empty and gone in one hour. The driveway had an even coating of gravel right where it was supposed to be. There was no shoveling required.

Dan seen the outline of the house was already staked out, so he grabbed a shovel and began removing the sod from where the house was going to be. “Whoa, Dan”, said Karl. “We have a machine to do that”, and one drove up.

Dan then grabbed a shovel and started digging the footers when Karl said, “Whoa Dan. We have a machine to do that”, and a backhoe drove up.

Dan followed the backhoe, trimming the foundation trough for width and straightness. The cement truck came in the afternoon and poured the foundation. As the cement truck was leaving, two trucks loaded with lumber arrived. Dan jumped on the first one and was ready to start hand unloading it when he heard Karl say, “Whoa Dan. These trucks have boom cranes to unload themselves.”

At the end of the day Dan asked Karl why he needed him, as he felt he did nothing that day. “You and I were the only two workers there today, Dan. We got a lot done and you did more than me. Are you saying I did less than nothing?”

Dan quickly looked at Karl hoping he hadn't offended him, only to see Karl smiling. Dan smiled also.

Dan and his family were invited to join the Huttons for dinner. They met Shorty for the first time. “How do you like the shed, Mr. Gressam?” he asked.

“It is a fine place for my family, sir.”

“My family is concerned about your two daughters, and thinks they might catch something next to the chicken coop. We don't have lice or rats in the coop now, but they could arrive quite unexpectedly. We would not want the girls, or you for that matter, exposed to those dangers.”

Dan is noticeably nervous. This is a lot like how his first employer started his speech to fire him. He felt he was about to be evicted. “We will keep an eye out for those things, sir. We like the shed very much and it is much better than we have been used to. Would you like my wife and me to clean the chicken coop to make sure the children are safe?”

No Mr. Gressam. I have a proposal for you. You are working for food and shelter. Would you allow your wife, if she agrees also, to help around the house with the cooking, cleaning and all the other house work in exchange for a room here in the cabin? We have a utility room that is warm, clean, and quite large that has its own bathroom right next to it. It also has its own door to the outside and a door into the house. Now as a sign of possible mistrust that surely must exist with both parties I would put locks on both sides of the door leading to the cabin here. We would not enter your room unless invited and would expect you to do the same for entering the rest of the cabin. Our side of the door would be unlocked from eight in the morning to five in the afternoon when Susan would be expected to work in the cabin. Do you think you would want to accept this proposal?

Sue looks at her husband with a smile. She obviously knew of the proposal and already agreed providing he agreed also. Dan looked at her and tears came down his rugged face. “I'm sorry you have to help me provide for you and our family, but I know it is best for our daughters.”

“I have had a lot of help myself over the years, Mr. Gressam. Accepting it when it is needed is the smart move. There are always ways to say thank you in the future.”

“I never would have thought families like yours would exist in the world of today. Thank you sir.”

“I take that as a yes. Please just call me John from now on. Now, your daughters and mine have a little present for us and are waiting for my queue to tell them to enter. Hit it Jasper”, and Jason runs to his drums set up in the corner of the dining room and starts a marching beat. Dan's girls march into the room the best they could while each was carrying one cupcake on a small plate as though they were the most valuable items in the world. Following them was Jane and Pookie carrying a large double layer cake. They all came to a stop at the head of the table. Jane said, “Pookie and I made this cake with the help of Sonia and Rachael, but Sonia and Rachael then made the cupcakes all by themselves for their mother and father.” Three year old Sonia presents her cupcake to her mother while two year old Rachael gives hers to her father. Dan says to his daughter, “Want the first bite?” Rachael shakes her head no. Pookie says, “Your daughters were smart enough to make extras. The little pigs already had two each”, and everyone laughed.

Chapter 6

Steward is sitting in front of the television. “Hey dad. Come in and see this”, he hollered.

Roger comes into the living room and says, “What is it? It looks like a documentary”

“Walmarket is opening a scrap yard for their customers. Listen”, as he turns up the volume

‘ … for its customers.

Let me repeat. Walmarket, knowing many of their customers do not have access to precious metals as payment for the quality Walmarket products they need, has opened up their Recycle Bank to serve them. You can bring in any metal no matter the condition and receive the high Walmarket price paid for any recyclable metal, whether it be scrap steel, scrap bronze or copper or brass, scrap stainless steel or aluminum, tin cans, cardboard, and even useful items like excess quality lumber and surplus inventory of many kinds of new products. You can elect to either receive payment in silver right on the spot or you can leave your silver as credit in the Walmarket Recycle Bank to use in any Walmarket store to buy whatever you want or need. Remember, Walmarket is here for its customers.'

“What do you think, dad?”

“At first thought I think it is a great idea. Now people can trade a lot more stuff they don't need for real money and then have the ability to buy anywhere. That will help a lot of people.”

“So what's the second thought, Pops? I can see you have one.”

“A lot of people will be missing things made of metal now. This is just what the thieves needed to steal the last few things from their already picked-over victims. We better let Shorty know to watch all that lumber he just had delivered for the new house. All thieves need is a place to sell the stuff they steal.”

“What's the matter, dad? You look like you have a third thought.”

“Walmarket is already a wealthy company. I have a feeling they are going to clean up on these metals by combining it with a bank concept that can only be spent in their stores. Did you write down that number? Lets call them and say we just resided our house with vinly and have one ton of aluminum siding we want to bring to their bank. Ask them how much is it worth. Tell them its all bent and cannot be reused. While you're doing that I will look up to see what Alcoa is paying for scrap aluminum anodized sheet”

Ten minutes later Steward puts down his phone and says, “The guy said he would pay one War Nickel for it. I said that sounded low. He said since he liked me he would overpay me one silver dime for it.”

“That comes to just under one hundred dollars a ton, Stew. Alcoa is listed as paying spot for the scrap. When I looked up spot for scrap sheet aluminum it is one half ounce of silver. That means it would convert to one thousand of the old dollars. You see what I mean? This will help the poor people a little and Walmarket a lot . The poor people always get screwed. Tomorrow we meet with Shorty to secure anything laying around that has now become a thief's target.”

A moment later the phone rings. Roger picks it up. “Colonel Hammond? Who's calling? Major Butch? Hold for a moment, please”, and Roger raises his eyebrows as he hands the phone to Steward. Steward puts the phone on speaker and says, “Is that you Ralph?”

“ Major Butch now Stewie. Gully is now a Brigadier General. He loves being called a general even though he is the lowest ranking general there is. They made him overseer of the Northeast Sector. His boss is in DC. It's some guy from one of those Ivy League rotsees . Gully never met him but talks to him once a week. Gully needs more men under him to get more rank … more officers too, that's why he promoted us. What type of job do you want? We don't get paid much but we can get money for any project we want. We can get any kind of equipment too. I see you have a lot of land there. How would you like a big tank to do your springtime plowing?”

“How did you get this number, Ralph?”

“From our computer. Did you ever see Google Maps? What we have is better. We punch in a name and it pulls out everything about that person. Do you know every other guy spells your name with a ‘t' at the end and not a ‘d'? Hey, do you wear underpants? I don't see where you were ever charged for underpants. Oh, wait a minute. I see your mom bought both thirty eight inch and thirty inch underpants, so I guess you do wear them. Your dad must be a little fat, huh?”

“Why did you call, Ralph?”

“To make sure you lived at this address. Your checks have been coming back and I had to find your real address.”

“If they pay in dollars the checks are no good anyway.”

“The government honors them Stew. Anything the government has seems to be for sale, and you can buy it with dollars. They have to take their own money, but the price is high. If you pay in silver or gold and don't need a receipt you can buy anything cheap. I mean anything and really cheap . There's a quartermaster in the Boston area that was selling new Hummers for a silver dollar each. I bought three of them, but when I went to pick them up the next day he said they were stolen by a pack of little kids and I should have taken them when I bought them. Those kids are getting bad, Stew.”

“Gully should recruit those little bastards and make honest men out of them”, says Steward winking at his father.

“That's a good idea, Stew. I'll tell Gully you suggested that. That would solve his personnel shortage too. I guess that's why you are always one rank ahead of me. Oh by the way, I'm having twenty uniforms sent to you at this address with your new colonel pins. You know, I should ask Gully if I can be the same rank as you. I put in more hours than you do. Oh, one more thing: That judge is in jail for one year, not six months. He swore at me. And your friend Mike is in Guantonamo. He was an asshole. I told them he said he knew what Arab king was behind the 911 tower collapse and shouldn't be released until he spills that information and it is confirmed by the king himself. Mike is toast. Well, gotta go. Keep in touch, Stewie. Let me know if you want that plow tank. I could even send a bunch of cannon bullets with it for deer hunting.”

After Ralph hung up Steward just looked at his father. He knew what he must be thinking after hearing how stupid Ralph was. He knew his father must be thinking the country has already crumbled because he looked so sad. His father looked at Steward and started telling him what he was worried about: “I have to tell you a story about that ‘d' at the end of your name, Stew.”

“Mom already told me about the stew story and the Garnet story last year, Pops. I told Garnie. We're cool with it.”

“Sorry, son. It seems like I was stupid all my life. People like Shorty and I voted in the people who wrecked this country over all these years. Now that it is ruined, the cost falls on you young children that had nothing to do with these mistakes.

The phone rings again. This time Steward picks it up and hears, “Colonel Hammond, please.”

“Speaking. Is this General Gully?”

“Yes. How is your mother coming?”

“Oh, … um … very slowly. The doctor said she might pull through. Thank you for being concerned, sir.”

“Major Butch has told me of your suggestion about recruiting the younger soldiers. That was an excellent idea. I see you have quite a lot of land there. I want to know if you will train the youth soldiers on your property. You would be close to your mother to care for her and can also train the young men in combat.”

“I don't know anything about combat, Gully. Why not have Ralph do it? He knows as little about it as I do.”

“You have to use the designated rank in the military now, Colonel Hammond. Please conform to protocol. We could build barracks on your property and an officer's quarters for Major Butch.”

“Oh, but … but, my mother has the back fields planted with, um, … um, … petunias . Yes, that's it. Petunias . If she saw them wrecked it would kill her. … sir”

“Your neighbor has even more land. Maybe we could use his.”

“No don't use his either.”

“We could have him taken to Guantanamo and then the land would be free.”

“Why not just take over the State Parks? No one is using them and you practically own them already … sir.”

“Another good idea, Colonel Hammond. Carry on with the care of your mother”, and Steward was again looking at his disturbed father who heard the whole conversation because the phone was still on speaker.

All Roger did was look at his son and say, “My generation and my father's generation brought this country down but you almost single handedly kicked it in the trash bin. Do you realize how fifteen year old kids with guns and authority will act? We got problems, Stew. We have real problems you started.”

As the months drew on Roger's predictions of the crash problems proved true. The governments from the federal to the towns decreed all payments for taxes and fees must be paid with gold or silver. A quick calculation by Roger showed the tax now owed on his old house, as shown on the bill they sent to him by mistake, was double the amount in silver from what it was in federal notes. There was a notice on the bill that the city was in arrears in its payments to the teacher's retirement fund. “The thieving bastards”, he thought.

The governments knew the common man did not have this form of money, but they knew many of the citizens still had their homes or farms or other assets which could be confiscated and sold cheaply to those who did have gold and silver. It was a matter of survival for the governments also, and as usual, the poor were again handed the bill. The common man could no longer pay these bills using the government's own worthless fiat money -- money that he could now just pick up lying in the street. “The thefts, murders and suicides will increase tenfold with these announcements” thought Roger.

But even worse than the thieving government's announcements regarding the new money were the ads on television for recruits in The Young Man's Control Army designed to be used to quell riots, fight illegal immigration, and control any citizens uprising. They showed happy children in spanking uniforms carrying military rifles, walking the city streets and getting respect from their elders. “Join the YMCA and help keep your country in control”, the ad said. “All you have to be is between fifteen and eighteen”, it added. Kids as young as ten tried to join, and when they were turned down they would ask if they could at least have a rifle. “Steward's idea was a success”, thought Roger, “… a horrible success for everyone but Brigadier General Gully who was promoted to full General for his idea.”

The country was now under Marshall Law. Citizens of all social levels were being arrested and jailed for simply disagreeing with these new young armed soldiers. Soon the young boys discovered their power and started shooting citizens in the street as a warning to others that they made the rules now. Many citizens were shot simply to answer a challenge of, “Think you can hit him from this distance?”

Roger would tell his friend Shorty the information he would learn on the internet, and Shorty would deluge Roger with all the gory information his sons had learned. The two friends tried to discover what they could do to at least help a few of the innocent citizens.

Roger and Shorty called for a meeting of all the Huttons and all the Hammonds. Shorty started the meeting with a question. “Roger. You had predicted the power grid would go off line, televisions would go out, the hospitals would close, the internet would go down. You were right about the police and the politicians being gone, but the utilities have stayed on. Why?”

“I already looked into why they are still on. There are a handful of people who know turning off the power would hurt everyone and even kill a lot of people like the old, the invalids, and the sick, not to mention the children who would freeze or become sick for many reasons from that action. These people are keeping the generators and the pumps for the water and what few hospitals there are left, open and working. I have discovered there is a silent group of patriots that are working together to keep these vital industries working by fudging their books. They have pooled their silver and gold to pay the coal miners for the coal to power the electrical plants. That way the minors think everything is okay. They are then making entries in their books to make it look like the hospitals, water authorities, old people's homes and other needed companies are paying their bills in federal notes as required. They could have done this for years, but now that the government is requiring all payments be in silver, well, I don't think they can keep the wheels running much longer.”

“What happens if they can't do that any longer?”

“It would shut down the country. No trucks, no fuel, no food, nothing would be available”, said Roger.

“Let's do it”, said Shorty in anger.

“People will die, father”, said Pookie

“That is why we must do it now”, continued Shorty, “because people are dying all around us now from this damn Marshall Law. I've heard of old people taking their own lives rather than continuing to live in what this country has become. I heard of a man who worked hard all week for three copper pennies for his family only to be robbed of it by those little military thugs. That man went home and killed his children, left a note that he would not see them starve to death, and then shot himself. We must shut down the country in order to rebuild it again. Right now if someone has a means to allow his family to survive, there will be some little low-life there to steal it. The only reason they steal is because they can't survive any other way. They are the same people who refused to learn and were happy to let us support them before the crash. I say their condition is their fault. I say only the fittest and the ones they love should survive, just as nature always handled it. Here is what Roger and I are proposing:

First: Steward will call that mighty General he went to school with and have him send two hundred machine guns and one million rounds of ammunition, two thousand heavy wool blankets and two thousand heavy parkas. Also one thousand AR-15 rifles and three million rounds of ammunition, plus two M1 heavy tanks with five hundred rounds of cannon ammo.

Second: We fit every building we own so it is capable of housing as many people as possible but keeping our food supply intact. It does not have to be comfortable housing … just survivable housing.

Third: The Hutton children are all familiar with the people who run the truthful internet blogs. They will find the coldest week predicted for this winter. That is when we schedule everything go down. How will they do that?:

• They will identify which of their readers are patriots and trustworthy.

• They will send those people an encryption code

• Using the encryption code they will be asked to contact the patriots who actually keep the wheels running in this country and let them know of the shut-down week.

Fourth: We will go into the surrounding towns and bring as many of the good people we can find to come here that week and try to get others in our position to take in as many of these good citizens as they can. I personally know twenty in this area that will help others like we will be doing.

Fifth: When we send the encryption code we will ask the patriots to ask other patriots throughout the country to prepare to help others in this same way. Many are farmers like we are with but with much bigger farms who can help even more than we can.

Sixth: When the country shuts down we prepare for a stand against the armies that will surely come, but it is at a time of our choosing, so we will at least have that advantage. God help us then.

“What would I tell Gully I need all that weaponry for, Dad?” asks Steward.

“Tell him you have recruited one thousand ex military men who will swear they never agreed to uphold the Constitution and will follow their General into battle. Tell him anything that will work. We need those weapons for a more even footing with the military.” Roger looks at Steward and adds, “You now have to use your words to get us out of this mess, Steward.”

“What do you mean ‘use your words to get out of this mess', dad? Why is it Stewie's job to get us out of the mess?” asked Garland .

“Think of this as another stew and Garnet story that Steward may tell you in a few years, Garnie.”

The next morning Steward pulls out Gully's card and dials his cell phone number. “General Gully here”, he hears.

“Good morning General Gully. Colonel Hammond reporting as ordered.”

“Good to hear from you, Colonel Hammond. How are things going in the Western part of my Northeast Sector today?”

“Very good, sir. I would like to report that I have recruited some men for this sector. They are ex military men who never signed-on to uphold the Constitution. They objected as conscientious objectors but were admitted to the military anyway. They said they would follow their general to the ends of the earth. What do you think?”

“ Real military men, Stew?”

“Yes, sir. They know all about tanks, machine guns and all the equipment. We could use them to train more men. You need men under you, sir. Not more children .”

“You are right, Colonel Hammond.”

“With your permission, sir, I could use my parent's land for training if I had the equipment. My mother is well now and she said the country comes before her petunias, sir.

“What equipment will you need, Colonel Hammond?”

“The following, sir: two hundred machine guns and one million rounds of ammunition, two thousand heavy wool blankets and two thousand extra large heavy parkas. Also one thousand AR-15 rifles and three million rounds of ammunition, plus two big M1 heavy tanks with five hundred rounds of cannon ammo and a full load of machine gun ammo for each tank.”

“How many men have you recruited, Colonel Hammond? That seems like a lot of stuff.”

“Five hundred, sir.”

“You need one thousand AR-15s for five hundred men?”

“These are, um … special operation forces men, sir. They can shoot two AR-15s at once, sir. Just like Rocky did in First Blood , sir.”

“Wow! I saw that movie. It was good. But why would five hundred men need two thousand blankets?”

“For extreme cold weather fighting, sir. We get that here in the hills and I heard there was a two hundred man Al Qaida terrorist cell in this area. I would like to use these new men to capture those Arab terrorists personally as a gift to you on your promotion.”

“I will put a rush on this order, Colonel Hammond. Can you use Major Butch in your operations?”

“No sir.”

“Oh crap. He's not as military as you are. I thought maybe you could train him better.”

“I only have time to do your work, sir.”

“Oh well, General Gully out.”

Steward was sweating when he put the phone down, but when he looked up he saw his father giving him a thumbs up.

Two minutes later the phone rings. “Colonel Hammond? General Gully here. We have a snag on that equipment order. It seems our suppliers are not making equipment for the military at the moment. Something about not wanting to get paid in dollars. All of the equipment we now have in current inventory has been earmarked for our foreign wars. I have an ample supply of war two, Korean and Vietnam stuff. It's never been used, just that it is obsolete now. I can send double of that stuff if it will work for you. Sorry Stew.”

“That will do, sir. Thank you.”

“I'll get it rolling. General Gully out.”

Steward looks at his father as though he failed in his job to redeem himself, only to see his father looking at a blank wall, with one hand on his chin and the first finger of the other hand moving up and down like he was scolding someone. Steward recognized this action as being what his father did when he was deepest in thought. After a minute of what looked like he was silently scolding the wall Roger turns to Steward and asks, “How many of your high school friends do you think you can contact?”

“All of the ones that still live around here”, was the reply.

“Let's go over to Shorty's and talk to the boys”, said Roger as he puts on his coat.

“It only took twenty minutes to round up all of the Huttons and the Hammonds for a meeting. Dan Gressam was asked to join also.

Roger started the meeting. “Steward was able to get twice the equipment on the list that we wanted, except it is World War Two, Korean War, and Vietnam war equipment. That stuff didn't actually change much from the current equipment. It is all good munitions, but that equipment gave me an idea. Who are the most patriotic people in the world? It is the very people who used these weapons in those very wars. There are still a lot of those people alive right now, and I'm sure they can still use this equipment, since a lot of them are probably still fighting those wars in their nightly dreams. I want to round up as many of these soldiers as we can find. I believe they are the best soldiers available.

Roger turns to Dan and asks, “Were you in the military?”

“No. I'm thirty two. It was voluntary when I was young and I didn't join because I seen my father who the war destroyed. He fought in the Vietnam war and was jeered when he returned home. Now he sits in his room and just looks at his uniform hanging on a hanger. I never wanted to be that way. He has become fatter and said his only regret was that he could not fit in his uniform anymore.”

“Would you ask him to locate as many of his fellow soldiers that he can and bring them all here with their uniforms? Just tell him the country he remembers needs him again.”

Roger then turns to the children and says, “Around the week of February 28 is supposed to be the coldest of the winter. Ask your schoolmates if any of their fathers or grandfathers were in these wars. We need all we can get.”

Then Roger turns to Shorty, “I think we will have more equipment than even my four hundred acres will hold. Can we enlist your thousand acres also?”

“Sure you can, Roger, but even four hundred acres will hold all that equipment.”

“Not if we fit another army and a war on it too. We have to have the war here , friend. It is our war and we should be the host. You may lose some of your winter wheat for this one. Sorry.”

Chapter 7

It wasn't five days later that the first of the military equipment from General Gully started arriving. A convoy of ten trailer trucks arrived carrying four thousand heavy Parkas and four thousand heavy wool blankets. These were stored in one of Shorty's barns.

The next day two thousand M1 Garand rifles arrived with six million rounds of .30-06 ammunition. These were stored in the second biggest barn

The next day was unusually warm and sunny. Twenty big flatbed trailer trucks with five jeeps each arrived. Each jeep had five machine guns mounted on it. “I guess I should have been more specific”, says Steward.

And with those trucks carrying the jeeps were two million rounds of ammunition for the small guns and five hundred thousand rounds for the 50 caliber machine gun on the back.

“I guess they just come with a big one on the back and Gully thought I might want bullets for it too”, said Steward.

The jeeps were stored behind the last barn.

That same afternoon six Sherman M4 tanks arrived along with another eight trucks carrying the ammunition for them. Steward looks at the bill of lading and sees Gully asked for ‘ two of the biggest tanks ever made or the same weight in littler ones '

Sergeant Realms, who was quartermaster for the depot from where the equipment came, hands Steward a photo of a P1500 Monster and said, “This is the biggest ever made. We didn't make it and don't have even one of them. We still owe you fifty Shermans .” Steward looks at his father who is shaking his head. Steward says, “Maybe just a few more Shermans will be sufficient.”

The following morning Dan arrives with his father. He introduces him to Shorty and Roger who were almost always together now that they had to coordinate the eating and living accommodations for the old soldiers starting to show up. “This is my father Antonio. He is seventy years old and was a Sergeant in Vietnam . He likes to be called Tony. His father was five years old when he came to this country. His father became a citizen and fought in World War Two. We all love this country” Tony stands straight and salutes Roger and Shorty, “Correction, sir. We love the way this country used to be.”

Tony was a large rugged man like his son Dan, but became rotund from drinking beer he made in his basement. He was carrying his uniform wrapped in newspaper. His military issue 45 automatic pistol was strapped to his side . “Can you put on your uniform jacket for us, Tony?” asked Roger. Tony looks down and quietly says, “It no longer fits, sir.” Shorty says, “Would you like it to fit again, sergeant?” “Yes, sir.”, was the reply. Shorty turns his head sideways and hollers, “Pookie? Bring your cloth tape and clothing marker please.

Pookie seen right away that the uniform was so much smaller than Tony there would not be enough material to just let it out, so she took the measurements needed to make a new one. She reverently took the old uniform with her when she left.

Shorty asks, “Would you like your father to stay in your room, Dan, or would you like him put up with the other soldiers?”

Dan looks pleadingly at his father and says, “His granddaughters would love to have him stay with us.”

Shorty sensed there was some kind of past falling out between the father and son, but seen the old man smile and shake his head ‘yes' as thought he could never say ‘no' to his granddaughters.

Over the next few weeks old soldiers came from miles around. Some kept in touch with each other and chartered a bus to bring them all there at once. There were a few men in their ninety's who were World War Two veterans. All carried their uniforms and a duffle bag. And all of the men knew the equipment as though it was just yesterday they were young men using it to defend themselves and our country. There was an immediate sense of rank known throughout all of the soldiers on the two farms of Shorty and Roger as to who knew and ran what aspect of the preparations. It was like they had immediately become a trained Division made up of smaller than usual Regiments, made up of smaller than usual Battalions, made up of smaller than usual Companies, made up of smaller than usual Platoons made up of Squads consisting of sometimes only of one or two men instead of the usual fifteen.

Shorty and Roger's army was ready with less than two weeks before the war was scheduled to start. It was very cold. It was February 27. During the day the soldiers practiced with live ammunition. They only needed a few rounds to check the weapons, but Roger wanted them to try each weapon with at least twenty rounds before lunch with several weapons of all sizes being fired at one time, “to get the men used to that noise”, he said. The men already lived with the memory of that noise in their heads constantly, but did as they were asked, because to them Roger and Shorty were like The Joint Secretaries of Defense. Suddenly at five o'clock in the afternoon everything went dark. The power went off all over the country … right on schedule. There was no heat in the barns where the soldiers slept, but each had a heavy parka and two heavy wool blankets and knew where extra blankets were should they want another.

The high temperatures predicted for the next week were predicted to be:

2/28: minus 20 F

3/1: minus 25 F

3/2: minus 30 F

3/3: minus 20 F

The lows were all minus 30 F. It was going to be a very cold week. Roger and Shorty decided March 3 was the best day for the war. Steward makes the call:

“General Scully?, Colonel Hammond here. The enemy is better equipped than we thought he would be.”

“I got reports from the YMCA of heavy armament being fired in your area. Is that from your battle?”

“Yes, sir. It does not look good. My men keep firing into the bushes, but when they inspect them afterwards there were none of your men in them, sir.”

“What? What do you mean, Colonel Hammond?”

“We have decided to fight for our country, sir. We want to fight the enemies of our country and you have not come to defend yourself, sir.”

“I'm not your enemy, Stew. I'm your general.”

“They have made me a general of my army, sir, and I'm calling you out. Either surrender your position in this repulsive government and join my army or battle us to establish the dominant party.”

“You got old equipment, Stew. You can't fight my army. We are the strongest in the world.”

“We may lose, sir, but we must fight. It is the tradition of military men to settle our problems in this manner. Are you a military man or are you what is referred to as a wimpy-assed chicken-shit coward?”

“Well, let me tell you of another tradition, General Hammond. A strong army doesn't send its best soldiers to fight a second rate bunch of men with old guns. I'm sending two thousand YMCE boys to your place tomorrow to take you down.”

“Thank you sir. Please supply your own diapers for your men and don't bother with bandages. Just send body bags”, and Steward hears the phone slam down.

February 28 th at ten o'clock in the morning almost one hundred School buses arrive at Rogers cabin. They were driven by 16 and 17 year old YMCA soldiers that were old enough to have driver's licenses, although most of them lied and didn't have them. The first ten busses drove into Roger's driveway and right into the fields looking for the enemy soldiers with old type weapons. They wanted to be the first to “kick their ass”. The tires of the first few busses were shot out, the young soldiers jumped out with their AR-15s and hollered, “Come out and fight like men.” They could see nothing but the fields and the shrubs and trees along the sides of the fields.

The two thousand YMCA soldiers formed a line at the end of the farm, everyone counting on the ones next to them to take a bullet that may have been meant for them, and they started walking down the field, shivering like the very marrow in their bones was starting to freeze. They walked two hundred feet down the field and saw no one, when suddenly about five hundred “field zombies”, as they would later be called, appeared almost in front of them. The Vietnam War veterans were laying in wait, covered with weeds and moss, and suddenly all stood up when given the signal from their sergeant – Sergeant Tony. The YMCA soldiers all saw Zombie movies and were very skittish about them, as they knew some could not be killed, but they had guns to at least try to fight the Zombies and stood there for a moment gathering their nerve. Before they could raise their rifles to fight they noticed the Zombies had just put knives on the end of their rifles. They didn't have knives at the end of their AR-15s. It was against the law to have a bayonet on an AR-15 or any assault rifle. All of the YMCA fighters had seen someone shot before. When you are shot you seem to die with no pain. But they also seen someone cut with a knife. When you are cut or stabbed you writhe in pain for hours, and die a horrible death. The young soldiers all carried knives; it was part of their wardrobe growing up in their old neighborhoods. But they could only hold a knife at the end of their arm, which was no match for a knife at the end of a three feet rifle. They wanted no part of that type of battle. When the first YMCA soldier turned to make sure the others were still close-by, the soldiers next to him seen him turn, and they turned also. Like a flock of starlings, the entire army of young soldiers turned simultaneously, dropping their rifles and running back to the busses, which left as fast as they came.

Again Steward calls on his cell phone, “General Gully? General Hammond here. Your army came and left. All that's left of them here are their weapons and the poop that spilled from their diapers, sir. Are you ready to surrender your position in this repulsive government and fight for the country created under the Constitution or are you ready to send real military men to fight my great army, sir?”

“You have old equipment, Stew. The regular army is millions of seasoned men with the latest equipment. In a word, Stew, I could kick your ass with a phone call.”

“All we want is our country back, sir. We can only get that with a battle conquering the usurpers. You are a general of that army, sir. Either come to battle us or surrender. I am setting March 3 rd as the battle date. You know if you don't show up I win by default just as the rules set up by Colonel Hinkley in ROTC for our practice battles on campus. But this is for real, sir. You have to show up with real soldiers or I win. There will be real deaths in this battle, but a soldier knows he may lose his life. If you show up yourself and you and I do battle, one of us must die even though we are friends. We are both fighting for our country, but we have different pictures of what it should be. My army will not accept anything other than what this country was originally designed to be.”

“You make a good general, Stew. I'm not going to fight you. Besides, you are two weight classes heavier than me. All I'm going to do is let the regular army know what you are doing and let them handle it. I was supposed to graduate last year. Now I don't know if I even want to be just a second Lieutenant in the regular Air Force when I do graduate. I'm tired of all this crap. I just want to go home and eat some of my mom's cooking.”

“I don't like this either, sir, but I must fight for my country.”

“I'll tell the regular army to be there March 3 rd . Good luck buddy. Gully out.”

The evening of March 2 was very cold just as predicted. Most of the Marines sent to fight the war showed up early in the evening to be prepared first thing for the March 3rd battle. They were early because they rode all the way from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and were scheduled to sleep before the battle. They couldn't believe how cold it was in this part of the country. Five hundred of these Marines had to be removed before morning to be treated for hypothermia and possible frostbite. The balance of the two thousand were so groggy from the cold they traded their rifles for heavy wool blankets, because they believed they had died and were receiving the warm blankets from angels … angels who actually looked like the fallen soldiers of wars past who just kept aging.

Karl was concerned how his men were surviving the cold weather in the unheated barns. He donned his night optics equipment and peeked in on his men sleeping. He then realized why soldiers of past wars respected each other so much, for he seen they all were wearing their heavy parkas with the wool blankets over them and had formed a spiral with each man hugging the one in front of him with no one half exposed as would be had they been in a straight line. The man on the end of the spiral compensated by hugging five wool blankets. “Soldiers rely on each other for survival both night and day”, Karl thought as he left.

At sun-up the soldiers of both armies were positioned in the field. The modern army was spread out by the road all around the buildings of Shorty and Roger's cabins. A Jeep drove up and a Major General of the Marines got out. He looked at the old warriers and thought they were crazy to try to fight the most powerful force in the world. He went to meet the commander of the opposing force. Steward met him in the empty field between the armies.

“Major General Thomas Hotchkiss, here.”

“I'm General Steward Hammond, sir. Would you like to surrender now before we lose innocent lives?” asked Steward.

“I have no intention of either surrendering or losing any of my soldiers, son.”

“Did you get ‘C's in school, sir?” asked Steward.

“What would that matter?”

“I just thought, Major General Thomas Hotchkiss, that since you never learned protocol that perhaps there were other classes you did poorly in, sir … like tactics perhaps. Do you realize we have you surrounded, sir?”

Hotchkiss turns around and sees on the hill on the other side of the road only a quarter of a mile away about two thousand men and eight Sherman tanks with scores of Jeeps equipped with machine guns facing his army.

“You forgot something, sonny. There is one more side you can't get to”, and he puts his telephone to his face and says, “Strafe the field to my East.”

A thunderous noise grows from the West and an F/A-22 Raptor fighter aircraft appears on the horizon at about the same time the field behind Steward is exploding from the rapid fire of its 20mm machine gun. The crashing boom heard as the aircraft whizzed past at faster than the speed of sound was deafening. General Hotchkiss watches with a proud smile as the plane flies past … a smile which suddenly fades away when he sees smoke and fire coming from the three hundred and fifty million dollar aircraft. With the last bit of speed the plane had it turned straight upwards so the pilot would have the height necessary to eject and have his parachute open in sufficient time. The plane came crashing down in the wooded area four miles away.

“I think your fast airplane ran into a couple of slow 50mm slugs, sir. Some of my soldiers were snipers and brought their own rifles. Sorry about that, but I'm sure you have more airplanes. However, we have more 50mm ammo. Would you just like to start our ground war now, sir? My army is approaching fast”, as Steward points to two old soldiers walking slowly towards them.”

“Get those old nurses out of the field, you idiot. We are here to fight men”, hollered General Hotchkiss.

“Those are my best soldiers, sir. Don't insult them before you kill them. Give them the courtesy of waiting a moment for them to arrive. You could use that time to give some of your men sticks to fight with. It appears that about fifteen hundred and twenty seven of them have lost their weapons. I might add that almost five hundred of your soldiers are being treated for hypothermia in our barracks, sir. They are fine, but are temporarily prisoners.”

General Hotchkiss turns and could only look at his men with his hands at his sides and palms up in a manner as though he was asking, “What?” or “How?” or “Why?”

As the old soldiers get closer it was seen that they had a blanket over their head and around their bodies. They actually looked more like monks. Pookie had cut their uniform jackets down the back center seam and sewn wool blanket material in the amount needed to fit around the now larger bodies. She did the same for the sleeves, but left the entire blanket intact so the men could throw it around themselves to keep warm. They did indeed look a little like husky old nurses from a distance even though one was Dan's father Tony and the other was a ninety one year old World War Two veteran named Martin. Tony had Sergeant Major of the Army stripes chalked on the wool blanket covering his uniform. The only difference seen between the two old soldiers, it seemed, was their age and their hats, for Tony wore the green beret of the Special Forces deployed in the Vietnam war, and Martin wore the Visor hat of a Marine officer … showing the two stars of a Major General.

“We cannot let you ruin the country we fought to preserve”, says Tony.

“This is our country. Not your country or the President's country or the banker's country, but our country, young man. If we fight then it will be my country I fight for” hollers Martin who had to take three breaths to say it.

General Hotchkiss looked at the men with awe, but said firmly, “I have my orders, gentlemen. You should understand that. I must obey my orders. Prepare to fight”, and he motions for the helicopter behind him to crank up the rotor so he can direct the battle from the air.

But as soon as the big blades started turning, the wind blew the wool blankets back from the front of the uniforms of Tony and Martin revealing both men had the Medal of Honor and both men had two Purple Hearts. Tony also had the Distinguished Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Soldiers Medal for Heroism, and a chest full of ribbons. Martin's left side of his uniform had no more room for medals and ribbons.

General Hotchkiss' men never saw more decorated soldiers. They also never saw the grit of a true old time soldier who had the courage to take on a superior army with only the weapons of their day and the conviction that they would win again. The twenty officers under General Hotchkiss walked towards the two old warriors and saluted. Then they walked to the side of them and stood at attention facing General Hotchkiss; they would not only not fight these old American soldiers, they would fight with them. The enlisted men cheered and saluted the brave old soldiers also.

General Hotchkiss looked at everyone with anger. He looked at the two old soldiers and had to admit they were the best soldiers he had ever met. He then put his telephone to his mouth and said, “General Hotchkiss reporting in. We have lost our air defense. We have lost the battle. We have run into a superior army”, and then he smiled as he shook the hands of Tony and Martin.

The word of the defeat of the U.S. army spread like wildfire. The mainstream media downplayed the event saying the US army did not engage the enemy and no one even died so nothing has changed. But what really happened was spread by the internet sites that people believed. Those sites said the armies would kill a citizen with no compulsion even though it was prohibited by the Constitution, but, they said, no US soldier would fire upon a veteran who was a fellow soldier. Every militia and Veteran groups in every state organized an army of old soldiers and placed an ultimatum to Congress and the President: “We will stay part of the United States if it reverts back to the rule of law as required by the Constitution or we will fight to become an independent country.”

The vote of the citizens may have been manipulated in the past, but no one would now accept anything less than a country run as was originally designed. Congress was angry … not because they disagreed, but because the flow of graft to them would dry up under the Constitutional law they blatantly disregarded. The President resigned and was later found to be a usurper anyway. He was jailed. Other countries were angry also, because the United States was a source of easy money to them and now they had none. Every country with a sizeable army wanted to invade the United States and knew it could defeat it with Atomic bombs, but what good would that do since the land would then be uninhabitable. No country would consider a land invasion now that the US was defended by armed citizens led by seasoned old soldiers. The United States no longer fought any other country. “Let each country solve its own problems. We have shown that citizens are stronger than any government. All the citizens of any country have to do to get the government they want is to stand up and fight for it.”, was now the position of the United States .

The new money of the United States had changed to a new unit called the TONY which was backed by silver and gold with a given and fixed ratio of ten thousand TONYs to an ounce of gold. Silver was allowed to float with respect to gold because of its use in industrial products, thus recognizing gold as the only true money, all other things now expressed in terms of so many ounces of gold. Oh yes, and one hundred TONYS was equal to one MARTIN, and it was their pictures on the money.

Shorty built another building on his property. It was a school where all of his children taught all of the children that could get to the building. There was no public money for teachers so there were no public schools. Shorty only said, “Some one has to start the wheels turning. It might as well be me.”

Tony would now sit with his son Dan and his daughter-in-law Sue, with a grandchild in each arm, and he would joke as Dan remembered he used to do with him in his arms when he was a child. It seems all Tony ever wanted was a small modicum of respect for fighting for his country. Tony was getting hundreds of fan mail letters every day now. He doesn't even open them anymore. He didn't really think he deserved any respect for serving his country, because it was his duty, but had become disheartened when it looked like his people thought he deserved only contempt. He never wanted to be thought of as a hero. But now he received more respect than he wanted for his last battlefield victory against General Hotchkiss. Tony just wanted to spend time with his family, especially now that his son listened to his stories and respected him and understood why he had to defend his country.
Martin and Tony became good friends. They had traded more war stories in two years than most old soldiers do in a lifetime … maybe because they both had more stories. Each was interested in the other's struggles in the two different kinds of wars, and each could picture what the other went through. Reliving each other's life with someone who fully understood was the healing process they were both looking for.