Matthew Mark - Dark Days Rough Roads

The windows and doors were now locked down and secured. They took another break and decided to go over the list that Dawn had made. She got up, walked over to a shelf and flipped on her ham. They had strung a wire antenna in the trees next to her house and ran it into the house next to the fireplace where the ham was plugged into a 12v source.

She only had a couple of outlets running on a few batteries. It was nothing like Haliday’s set up. She would wait a bit and then try to reach him. She was told to wait until 24 hours, enough time to get home, secure the place and take care of any little things. To travel twelve to fifteen miles in one day was more than acceptable the first couple of days of an event.

She looked down at the fireplace, which was natural gas. She saw the pilot flame flickering. That was great news. Haliday’s mom and dad had watched a video online about fuel sources and what to expect in SHTF scenarios. They had told him that natural gas was a constant source and would continue to provide fuel at a constant pressure unless it was turned off.

He did a little more research and had passed the information on. Here in Michigan, they had a lot of wells, and it was possible they could have natural gas flow for 4 to 6 weeks if not longer. Of course there were a lot of factors that could change that, but they would use it as long as they could.

She turned up the volume on the radio and listened. She double-checked the frequency list she had and it was set correctly. She waited. The voice was definitely his. “Kaybear and Bobily on track all safe, reply one word.” The replies came, “yes,” “yes,” and a “me, too.”

“Who is this?”

“It’s munch.” He called her munch, short for munchkin and she hated it. He was just like that big brother that made life hell.

“Anything bad going on,” he asked. There was silence. “Anything bad,” he asked again.

She said, “We are fine, but we had a problem.”

He responded, “Ok, then move on, get busy and worry about it later. With everyone here now I’ll revert to more normal talk on the ham, but refer to my instruction sheet on keeping security on the net tight.” Of course everyone except Dawn wondered what had happened.

Rich and Bev Haliday had been going over things all day long they were also checking the radio every couple of hours to make sure they had things ready and secure. Bev had gotten serious about prepping again about six months ago. Although she had stock from her Y2K preps, she wanted to build upon that.

Over the years though, she kept a large amount of canned foods on hand and rotated through them constantly. She had also kept large supplies of toilet paper, paper towels, soap, deodorant and more on hand. You could go over there and shop in a pinch and be able to take home enough food or supplies to get you by until payday if you had too.

Rich just went along with the program. He was not into being ready like Bev, but he was a good supporter of the cause and helped when he could. He would run out to the store to catch the sales, hit the gas station to fill up gas cans and help stock and inventory things. They had sectioned off a small part of their basement and dedicated it to preps. His reward was a trip to the casino every couple of weeks, which he enjoyed a lot.

Often times, Haliday joined them for a little fun at the casino. There wouldn’t be any slot machines in the near future. Next to smoking, that was Rich’s only vice. He never really thought anything would happen, and now that it did, he found himself appreciating the readiness of the household.

They had continued to stock enough food and were fully prepared to take in some immediate family members if they were able to make it there. At last count was a dozen more mouths to feed and they calculated they had enough food for about five months or maybe seven if they were religious on portion control. There were even pudding packs they bought at a warehouse club when they found out they lasted almost two years.

These would be treats for the kids and Rich was fond of making sure these were sufficiently rotated. Bev had canned a couple hundred pounds of meats just in the three months before because she said she had that feeling. Rich kept telling her not to waste her feeling on the end of the world, instead tell him what the lottery numbers would be.

They were just checking on their water supply, which was not the best, when they heard a knock on the door. They had two 55 gallon drums ready and a couple cases of bottled water. They also had the hot water heater but would be saving that for bathing and cleaning the next couple days.

They knew it wouldn’t be hot, but warm enough to clean up with without having to boil any water. They both went upstairs. Haliday told them never to answer the door alone. Someone should always be at the ready, out of view, in case they needed to fire on an unwelcomed intruder.

Bev asked who it was and heard a reply. It was her granddaughter Sarah with her 3-year-old great-granddaughter Elizabeth. They went through a little word game so Bev knew it was safe to open the door. She opened the door and let them in. They gave each other a quick hug and closed the door.

Bev asked where her husband was and Sarah said he had not made it home, so this morning she packed up and they walked here. They had been walking all day, but mostly Sarah pulled Elizabeth in a little wagon. It had only taken them about four hours to make the 10 mile trip from their trailer park.

Sarah said she was worried about her husband Erik, but Bev told her Erik knew where the house was and should know to come here. That didn’t seem to satisfy Sarah though, because Erik had only been about 15 miles from home when everything went down, and he should have been there when she left.

Little did she know he was stuck in an elevator and didn’t know how to get out. He had been the only one in it when it stopped and he didn’t have any idea how to get the doors opened and he couldn’t reach the access hatch on the top of it.

Erik was moving some cleaning equipment from one floor to another in a very small three story office building that was under construction, when the elevator he was in suddenly stopped. As far as he knew, it was just a power failure. His phone was out in his car charging and when he had yelled for help, all he heard was another guy tell him the power was out, but he would try and get help. There had been only around 20 people in the building working on it and most of them had left. He sat there waiting and would shout for help every once in a while.

Sarah got settled and asked if she could rest for a bit. She and Elizabeth went into the guest bedroom and lay down on the bed to take a nap. Rich and Bev let her sleep because it was obvious she was up most of the night worrying, and the walk had taken all of the energy she had left. As she laid there trying to think about where her husband could be, she drifted off to sleep and wouldn’t wake up for another four hours.

Elizabeth slept for only two. When she got up, she chased the cats around the house and played with them. Then she asked if she could watch TV. Bev said it was broken. Elizabeth said it was broken at her house too. Bev gave her some paper and crayons and she drew pictures. Bev had made sure there were things around to occupy their time instead of just sitting around.

Rich came in from the garage, where he had been looking for something. “I found it Bev,” he said. “I’ll try it and see if it works.” He climbed down the stairs to the basement and went over to the sump pump. He dropped the end of a hose in the sump and pumped the handle of the water filter until water came out. He placed some in a plastic cup which he set aside.