J. Curtis - Calexit - The Anthology

He lived at the end of an eighteen-mile long dead end road outside of Panamint City, a ghost town since the 1940s: a gate, and then two blind turns and a gravel two-track through the trees. It was a fairly primitive road. If you knew the road and had a decent vehicle, it would take you over an hour to get to the house. If you didn’t, it could take four, if you didn’t get stuck. No one not from around the area could know that there was anything at the end of the lane. He’d been careful with his light discipline after sundown and he’d kept the noise to a minimum. People local to the area knew he lived here, but he’d been trying to make ’em think he wasn’t at home anymore. He’d set his telltales carefully, and his surveillance cameras had detected movement and set the alarm. He watched the convoy struggle through the deep pea gravel that made up the road as they tried to get up the hill.

The vehicles were a mismatched pair of 4wd trucks driven by amateurs and a trio of 6 x 6 trucks that had Army or National Guard markings, also driven by folks unfamiliar with the vehicles. He’d fixed up the land here in a very remote part of the mountains on purpose. He’d planned on the road being difficult for nearly anyone to traverse. In fact, he’d built the road to make entry to his home difficult. He had left signs that made it look like it was an abandoned mining claim.

If they’d only have given him another week, hell, three days, he’d have been done and gone. All his supplies would have been buried for safekeeping and later retrieval or loaded aboard the old Beaver airplane and he’d have been on his way over the border to Arizona.

His wives and kids were already at Jim’s. He’d flown them out two weeks earlier, knowing that this was coming, if not as soon as it had. All he’d needed was to gather the last of his possessions and either safely hide ’em, or load ’em out on the plane. He and his oldest son Jack were planning on taking one last load and saying goodbye to the last neighbor over the hill to the east and leaving, maybe for good, but at least for a long time. Jack had a map for the neighbors, the Martin’s, showing some of Daniel’s survival food caches so they’d have something to eat if things turned bad… and permission to “steal” the solar setup and batteries and anything else left at the house once they were gone. But Jack wasn’t back yet…

Oh, well, gotta take it as it comes.

He waited, watching as the first truck struggled up the hill, rutting the road for the next truck, and the one after that. Wrong gear, set for 4wd-low, it spun the tires and sprayed gravel back into the faces of the men waiting as it climbed. The second pickup was close enough that he could see in the monitor as gravel sprayed across its windshield and cracked it. Idiots, he thought. City folk.

Two hours, he thought to himself. I’ve got two hours tops, if I don’t delay ’em.

He called Jack, but the cell phone reception in the mountains was spotty, and so he got no answer. He chose to write a long text message, telling him what was happening and for him to hurry for the plane. He then called his neighbors, but again, got no answer. He sent them a text, warning them as to what was coming and wishing them luck. Text messages seemed to go through even when voice calls wouldn’t.

With that, he turned and began his preparations.

He had plenty of dynamite, and some of it was already placed. He just needed to arm it, and then he’d have more time yet. With a bit of creativity, he could keep this going until daylight tomorrow, if he had to.

With that, he fired up the Arctic Cat four-wheeler and moved it over to the shed. This was gonna be fun…

As he worked, he mused: It had all begun, he supposed, with the “Sanctuary Cities” movement, or maybe even before that. But then the California Senate declared that anyone currently living in the State who had a California ID (and the State had weakened the ID requirements for Driver’s licenses and ID’s years before, so that essentially meant anyone) was now a citizen of the State of California. This entitled everyone to State Benefits: Free Health Care insurance, Welfare, Food Stamps, etc.

The State soon had a budget problem (They had been running a deficit for YEARS, but this legislation increased that deficit to unbelievable proportions). Then they raised taxes, both corporate taxes, and individual income taxes. This led, of course, to businesses leaving, upping unemployment from already high levels to intolerable ones. Soon, they raised the State income taxes on Individuals to 40%. Wealthy individuals left, taking more jobs and wealth with them. Then not- so wealthy individuals began leaving with their assets too… To counter this, the State enacted a 20% tax on all interstate transfers of money out of the state. Which just increased the levels of people selling assets and moving them out of state. Lots of people sold their real estate, converted that electronic money into physical dollars, and moved the resulting cash out of the state in the trunks of their cars or in suitcases.

The election of 2022 caused a great deal of uproar. All year long, there had been calls for California to secede from the Union, and the northern Californian counties wanted to secede from “California”. The “State of Jefferson” was formed in that election in a ballot initiative that the State opposed, but which went on the ballot in the northern counties regardless, with nearly 100% of the citizens of the northern fifty-one counties choosing to leave the state of California in that ballot initiative. Another initiative was for California to leave the Union, which passed in the balance of the state at nearly 80%.

The lines were drawn. The Southern half of California became “Cali” and the northern half became “Jefferson”—they had subsequently applied to become part of the U.S., but had not yet been accepted. The elections were also significant in that for the first time, the legislature of the new Cali was dominated by socialists and Latinos.

In addition, since the election, there was a big push from the whole “Reconquista” movement, and it was growing in power every time he listened to the radio or looked on the internet. He expected that soon whites would be second class citizens. He didn’t know what was gonna happen to the Chinese and other Asians. There was some ugly talk because whites and Asians held much of the land and businesses…

In the meantime, because almost no one had a job and incomes were low, and there was no tax money to be had, the State chose to enact, via legislature, a Basic Living Stipend… BLS, it was called. This gave everyone a basic living income. Each and every person in the state with an income of less than $60,000 got a cash card, which could be used like a Debit Card to purchase anything they wished. It was, essentially, a free $25,000 yearly… “Fairness” was the mantra used to justify the program. “Everyone needs an income they can live off of”. Of course, this electronic benefit was also taxed, creating two economies. One, above the table, where everyone paid taxes on the electronic transactions, and another, underground, cash based economy, wherein no one paid any taxes. Since a lot of people still worked, many were paid cash instead, and no one reported those transactions so they could continue to “qualify” for the BLS, and no taxes were paid on half or more of their income.

He’d heard via the grapevine and the Internet that the “Counselors” (thugs, really) were moving into his area, so he’d stashed his wife and kids at Jim’s, and then gone back for a few more loads. He’d flown back and forth once every three days or so for the past two weeks, carrying his art, his guns, his stamp collection and his bullion and jewelry. He’d also buried about five tons of ammo and explosives, and most of his long-term food and other preps, in hastily made bunkers made of visquene and tarps buried at the top of the hill so they’d be able to drain… in the hope that he’d be able to come back for them later. They were individually packaged in sealed containers, so they would likely be okay… as long as no one found ’em.