Prologue
Mitch
July 7th
Finally, I had made it home to an empty house, a house full of memories; of laughter and tears and love and stress and now pain.
Sandra was gone; I had watched her slowly fade away from internal bleeding after being struck down while crossing the street. The doctors told me that at any other time she would have recovered, but when the hospital generators quit and the machines that were meant to keep her alive failed; her broken body just couldn’t keep going.
I’ll never forget the last breath my wife of eight years took. I willed it not to be the last. I begged God, but I knew in my heart that it was just too final. There were no codes called, no paddles, no nurses running to respond; just silence when she stopped breathing and no amount of wishing could change it.
I sat there waiting and watching and hoping, but finally I had to move when they came to take her. There was no ceremony or service, just a gurney squeaking its way down the hall as they took her body away, forever.
Today there had been no power anywhere in the city except the few places that still had fuel and a working generator.
At first, it had been a lark for many people; a weekend adventure that stretched over into Monday and then Tuesday and beyond, quickly becoming less and less fun and more and more a nightmare.
Most people had been woefully unprepared for any sort of widespread emergency. When it had finally occurred and people began to realize the power was not coming back anytime soon, panic had set in.
That first morning there were still quite a few vehicles that would run after something like half of the city’s cars and trucks quit sometime Sunday night along with almost all of the electric vehicles. But now gasoline was the big problem and without power to pump it, the stations were locked up tight.
People were reduced to scavenging what fuel they could find if they still had a vehicle that would run.
My own truck was still sitting in the parking lot at the hospital after I had forgotten Dad’s warning to disconnect the battery. Cell phones were useless and I had no vehicle; no way to contact my family and no way to drive out to the retreat to rejoin them.
I was trapped and alone in a city of a million people who were without power and were rapidly running out of food.
Chapter 1
Dan
March 15
“What are you writing sweetie?”
I looked up from the keyboard at my wife Joanne; once again marvelling at how I had married such a fine woman. Knowing that I’m not much to look at, I still sometimes wondered how I had accomplished that amazing feat.
Maybe it was true what the comedian Red Green once famously said, if the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy. Perhaps that was what had sealed the deal between Jo and me?
And not only had she married me, but we’d also managed to keep our marriage together when things didn’t always go our way over the last few years. It seemed like a miracle, but somehow we were happy together.
But back to her question; “what am I doing?”
I’ve been sitting here at my laptop typing words as though I am an author and I am not an author. As an unemployed, make that underemployed, fifty-five year old electrician, what do I know about disaster preparedness?
I thought back over the last several months, ever since we had a really bad cold snap where temperatures got down as low as -46 degrees Celsius for almost a week. The electrical grid became so precarious that they warned of rotating blackouts unless people immediately shut off as much as they could to cut back on the electricity being used.
All of a sudden the prospect of “freezing in the dark” became very real to me and I began to truly think about where the world might be heading.
It wasn’t just the crazy weather. It was also the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the war in Gaza and the response of Palestinian supporters in Western countries; it was Iran and North Korea and China and the very real possibility of war on a scale we hadn’t seen in decades, if ever! It was North American politics in general and the polar divide between the Left and the Right. It was about climate change and the U.N. and the World Economic Forum and the global elites gallivanting around the world in private jets deciding what was good for the rest of us.
The phrase, “Something wicked this way comes” popped into my mind, remembering a Ray Bradbury novel I had read many years ago. Something bad was coming, something very, very bad. Sure there were always wars and natural disasters, but this time it was going to be different; bigger, more final. I didn’t know how I knew, but I did.
I was sure about it, what I wasn’t sure about was what it would be. About the only thing that I had ruled out so far were zombies, lately the favourite cataclysmic theme of pulp fiction authors.
I was writing about the future, an unknown future with unknown problems and hazards and I was trying to imagine how to prepare for those problems in advance so that when that unknown future arrived, the readers family might survive, or at least have a chance to survive.
If I had to condense what I was doing at my keyboard down to a single phrase or sentence it would be that I was writing about…and I really didn’t want to use the word, but it was about the coming apocalypse, the end of civilization as we know it: Doomsday.
There I had finally said it, at least to myself. I was writing about survival in a dark world, without the comforts we now know; without power, lights, heat, social programs and police; maybe in a world without much hope.
I remember sitting in my recliner and reading the news and thinking, if something happens, some kind of major disaster, am I ready for it? Are we ready?
After a little research I realized the answer had to be a definite no!
And if we weren’t prepared for a major disaster with our house and garage and shed already stuffed with camping supplies along with fishing and hunting gear, a pantry full of food, and our large garden, then who would be?
That made me think of our own kids and their families and our neighbors and friends. After a very informal survey of our crowd I realized that most people in the city around me had no idea of what it takes to truly be prepared for any kind of major disaster. As a society we rushed along, busy with our day to day tasks while becoming more vulnerable to any disruption to our technology.
Then I asked myself the question that changed everything. What can I, Dan Jackson; a quite ordinary blue-collar tradesman, possibly do to help my fellow North Americans become more prepared for a disaster that seemed like it was becoming more and more likely to happen very soon?
It took a while, but an idea had finally come to me.
Slowly I came back to the present to find my wife, rapidly losing patience as she waited for an answer. She tipped her head quizzically at me and I blinked back, finally realizing that I had been silent too long.
“I’m writing a book,” I told her, but when she just continued to look into my eyes, obviously waiting for more, I quickly elaborated. “It’s a sort of how to book; it’s called “How to Disaster Proof Your Home and Family.”
She looked a little dubious so I added a bit more information in a doomed effort to get her to stop asking questions so I could get on with it. “You know how worried I’ve been Jo; I mean we’ve both been worried about the state of the world and the possibility of something really bad happening soon, right?”
She nodded her head and as she spoke, her voice took on a determined tone. “I feel anxious all of the time these days and I don’t know what to do about it.”
Before I could respond she spoke again. “There doesn’t seem to be any common sense left in the world, at least among the political leaders and with everything else going on it’s so daunting!’ There’s the crazy weather, the pandemic just barely behind us and now the drought and shortages of so many things that we all need. I’ve got zero confidence that anything can be done to fix things.”
I found myself nodding along with her and I couldn’t help getting excited as I responded to what she said. “Exactly! I totally agree! Everyone just goes along, assuming that nothing bad can happen to them— beyond the usual things I mean. No-one is doing anything to prepare, except preppers of course and they get laughed at like they’re nuts. Well I think they’re right, at least to a point.”
I realized that my voice had risen to a dramatic level and she was looking at me strangely but I barged on with it. “Listen love, I’ve been thinking about what to do with the money that mom left me and I have an idea. You might think it’s crazy but,” I paused for a second and sighed noisily as I noticed that she was dying to say something. “Ok, go ahead” I told her with a smile.
“I know what you’re going to say Dan, at least I’m pretty sure I do and if you’re thinking that you want us to buy a place in the country and get the heck out of Dodge— then I think you’re right!”
I couldn’t believe my luck. We were often on the same page when it came to big decisions but I`d been worried that she wouldn’t want to go along with this particular idea. And it was an idea that if I were honest about, was pretty far out there! But instead of protesting, she had anticipated my plan and liked it.
I couldn’t help myself; I jumped up and grabbed her by the hands as she paced around the dining room. I pulled her into a tight embrace, whispering “thank you” into my wife’s ear. I felt like dancing around like a kid, but I settled for laughing with relief as we stood there grinning at each other.
“I want to make this happen Jo, and I mean as soon as we possibly can!”
I watched the hope dancing across her eyes at the thought of getting out of the city for good. “So do I Dan, so do I.”
After we had calmed down a little we plopped down onto the couch and she turned to me with a questioning look and said, “But where does the book come in?”
“I know that I’m no expert in this but I’m just so worried for the world. I think people aren’t prepared for the possibilities, I’ve thought about it a lot and I’ve researched it and I felt that I wanted to help prepare people for whatever happens.”
“If and when some big disaster comes along and destroys our society and we both know it will AND we survive it, I won’t feel so guilty for not doing enough to help. We’ll have done what we can.”
I was pacing around at this point after having jumped up to bleed off some of the nervous energy the topic always seemed to bring out.
“I know we have a moral duty to help others but if it gets real bad, I think at that point, people will most likely have to look out for themselves and their own families and if my little book helps them get ready for the future, I’ll be glad. Realistically, we`ll have done what we can for them.”
She looked at me with her big sad eyes, I could almost picture what she was thinking, imagining all of the people who had still done nothing at all to prepare and had never thought about the possibilities. They needed to know the dangers and maybe my little book could help.
Researching for my “disaster book” as I had taken to calling it in my head, I had found that less than half of Canadians had put together or purchased any kind of disaster kit to keep at home and barely more than half kept any kind of kit like that in their car.
It turned out that even those statistics were a few years old and with the stepped up immigration rates lately I was concerned for the new immigrants. I figured that they probably hadn’t considered the need for a disaster kit like that if they hadn’t yet faced a prairie winter. Even many locals may not have any idea where to find those sorts of preparation resources.
I discovered that many government websites were full of good information, but how many people actually think about these things ahead of time and get the stuff together where they can grab it if something happens? Probably not very many!
I know that even with my background and training having been the safety coordinator for years at a previous employer, I had only a rudimentary, wholly inadequate kit at home before I started researching disaster preparedness for the book.
So like a reformed smoker, in my thoughts I was quick to come down hard on people who hadn’t seen the light yet, I knew I had to be careful not to come across as being judgemental. Even though I felt like yelling “YAAAAGH!” at the world I kept my mouth shut because I knew that getting upset would only make Joanne feel worse, so I just frowned and squeezed her hand.
After a few seconds my mind went to our own family, and I decided to bring up what I was pretty sure we were both thinking about. “We have to look after the kids somehow, whatever we do has to include provision for them and however many other family and friends we can accommodate.”
Jo spoke up with a nod of her head, “you’re right but a lot of people will just laugh and sneer and call us kooks, or “preppers” I can hear it now and I don’t like it!”
I couldn`t help grimacing and nodding along with her as I added my own take on it, “I know and that will weed out a few people. If we plan it right we can probably make provision for 12 to 15 people. I suppose that of those a few will change their mind about joining us or they won’t be able to make it, hell, I hope when the time comes, we`ll be able to make it!”
I paused for a breath and after a few seconds she took over, “I know what you mean, cars break down, and gas may not be available if people haven’t planned ahead or bad weather may make it impossible; there are dozens of possible reasons!”
I jumped back in, continuing my thought before I lost it. “I’m kind of thinking no-one can know about this except those who want in and are committed and by committed I mean they plan to have their own supplies and living quarters prepared in advance. What do you think Jo?”
She was looking up at the ceiling as she struggled to see the future issues, “I agree, we don’t have the budget to build living quarters and stock them up with supplies for other people, they need to plan ahead and prepare their own spot if they want to be “shareholders” in our little venture.”
I couldn’t help smiling, “Shareholders, hmmm, I like that, or maybe Citizens of the new republic; the Republic of Dan!” We both laughed at the absurdity, but little did I know that the seeds of the future were now sewn, for better or worse.
After a pause I got back to it and carried on with our brainstorming session.
“Of course whatever we call them, it just means they have some skin in the game, they’ve invested their own hard earned money and sweat equity preparing in case the crap hits the fan, and you and I both know it will!”
“Speaking of money” she asked, “how much of your mom’s money is left?”
I squinted out of habit as I thought about her question, after my mom had passed two years ago she had left me almost $600,000 as well as $100,000 to each of her grandkids and most of that legacy was still intact.
“I think there’s about $530,000, give or take a little. I’ll check tomorrow. But it should be enough to get us started without having to sell this house, I would actually like to keep it, I think we need a rallying point where we can all meet up and travel together if the worst happens.”
“You really think we can keep this place?” she asked as we both looked around fondly.
I nodded and smiled at my wife of 31 years “You bet, this is where we raised our kids, we’ll keep it as long as we can, don’t worry about that. We still need a place to stay when we visit the kids and this place has lots of room for a staging area to meet up and prepare if we have to bug out.”
We were really clicking now as we hashed out a plan and it was just the kind of interaction that we both excelled at.
Jo jumped up and went over to the family room window, gazing out at the back yard.
“It’s right on the edge of town and if our new property is anywhere to the West and I imagine we will want to be out that way towards the mountains, this will be the perfect place to leave from. Who knows what the security situation will be like in a disaster? The quicker we can be on the highway the better!”
I carried on with her thought, “Janet is ten minutes away and Mitch’s place is only five minutes so I’m sure they could meet up here in a very short time.” If we had a trailer all stocked up and ready to go at a moment’s notice, we could be away to the foothills in an hour and a half from any initial warning.”
I looked at my wife as she spun around beaming in hopefulness and anticipation, saying. “We need to get it all set up and practiced so we can work out the kinks before the big one.”
“But first, we need some land!”
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