Matthew Mark - Dark Days Rough Roads

In fiction there is always a small bit of truth. Without my life experiences and the people I know and love, I would not have been able to create this story. I do not claim to be anything more than a former soldier, a man who loves his country, a man who loves his family and friends and most importantly a father who loves his daughter.

My parents Richard and Beverly have taught me that nothing in life is easy. They taught me that life will deal you the hardest hand that it can. It was through watching their hardships and their struggles, and how they overcame them that they taught me life’s lessons and how you can survive anything with hard work, perseverance and love. I love you both.

Each and every family member has played a pivotal role in my life one way or another. We’ve shared the best of times and we have shared the worst but we have always been there together. My brothers and sister, thank you all. Families are the last great institution that America has, never fail them and protect them always.

My girlfriend has been by my side the past several years and has supported me through everything I have done. Without her I could not have completed this project. Just being by my side has meant a lot to me. Love you sweetheart.

I wish to thank my ex-wife Candy. She and I brought our daughter into the world. Thank you for giving me such a wonderful child. After you and Mike read the story, please don’t tear out the walls. Thank you for watching her while she’s at school.

To all of those who I served with, all of the stupid things we did and all of the brotherhood we have shared. I would not trade it for anything in the world. I am privileged to have served with all of you. If you judge a man by the company he has kept, then I am judged among the best that there is.

Michelle, thank you for the horse information and contributions you made by letting me include you and your family in the story. It helped a great deal and I appreciate your friendship, stay safe. Each and every person whom I have met touched my life in one aspect or another. I always take away something from everyone I meet. Of course I can’t forget my cat Romeo and Max the mutant dog.

My sincere thank you to Kathleen K., and Michelle K., for the second editing and to Lacey O’Connor for the cover design.

An alarm clock wakes you up in the morning, your coffee is brewed in an electric coffee pot. You use a computer or television to check your morning news. Your smart phone contains your daily, weekly, or monthly schedule along with the contact information for everyone you know and it connects you to the world. You rely on an automobile to take you to work, to school, to the store or someplace else. This auto is more computer than it is car.

The food you eat and the products you use are brought in by truck and rail, rolling computers as well. It’s cargo is stocked and inventory is electronically controlled. You pay by cash or most likely using a plastic card with a magnetically encoded stripe on it connected to your bank. Almost everything you do daily is affected in one way or another by technology.

This technology is run by electricity. A single spark to start it all. But we have to ask ourselves, without that spark, without that technology, how would we live? How different would life be? Could we still thrive? More importantly, if it changed today or tomorrow, could we survive?

Mother natures coronal mass ejections, sun activity, nuclear weapons, electronic weaponry and more can take that spark away in an instant. Mostly man made, however, we must look at the changing world around us and wonder. Out of 7 billion people, how many does it take? It takes only one. Millions of lives can be changed by only one. Yes, one person with an agenda, a grudge or a hatred for a nation.

The premise of the event in this book as illustrated above is made simple. What we can not simplify offers just as much opportunity to bring a nation and its people to their knees. Financial collapse as seen in Greece, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria and more show how fragile economics are. We have spun out of control with our national debt and our own economy.

Each year as we stand in lines for flu shots the experts are trying to predict which strain will affect us most. Although the eradication of many of the World’s most devastating diseases has occurred, there still exists the samples that are easily propagated. Naturally evolving strains of disease evolve quicker than scientists can name them. Add biological warfare and nerve agents and it becomes incredibly concerning.

Natural disasters are frequent. People are still living in tents months after Hurricane Sandy. They lived in shacks or trailers for years after Katrina. Rising rivers, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, drought and snowstorms all affect our lives. From days, to months, and sometimes years. You must be able to survive. How many people can the government rescue at once? These disasters have shown us that it’s very few. These disasters can take the people away, who control that same spark.

A simple job loss and lack of income can affect you. The saying is “Stockpile beans and bullets.” If you look around, if you pay attention to world events and our own country and what has transpired in our short history, doesn’t it make sense to take some simple measures to protect you and your family? You’d be surprised how affordable it is to survive. I’d rather have it and not use it, instead of need it and not have it.

The weather outside was nice and the temperature was around 70 degrees. The sky was partly cloudy and a nice bright sun poked through the clouds. It was not too hot or too chilly outside, and with this kind of weather Roger Haliday did not expect any problems when the helicopter landed. It would be another routine medflight, if indeed there was actually a routine flight for these guys.

Haliday had been out circling the hospital campus in the patrol vehicle when dispatch had called and told him an inbound medflight was due to arrive in 10 minutes. Haliday shot over to the helipad, where he unlocked the gate and took the cover off the 150 pound beast of a fire extinguisher they called “Purple K”, named after the aviation fuel fire suppression chemical inside of it. The extinguisher was based on two wheels and always stood guard just inside the helipad’s fence.

Not wanting to get wind whipped by the rotor blades, he retreated into the vehicle and awaited the arrival of the bird. Hearing the telltale thump thump thump of the main blades, he watched closely as he had dozens of times before. Across the way, a few cars had stopped on the nearby side street to watch.

He reached down and turned off the vehicle’s strobe lights and also the vehicle. They usually kept the strobes on until they spotted the aircraft, but then turned them off as soon as they suspected the pilot had the helipad located. There was no sense in blinding the pilot with blinking lights while he was landing.

It was always cool to watch this sleek aircraft seemingly just land for no reason in the middle of a neighborhood. This of course was not the case. Stroke victim, burn patient, car accident or what not, someone needed extreme care and quickly. Still, it always drew curious onlookers.

He looked over at a large house that backed up to the helipad. Some genius built six brand new houses right next to it. Backing up against a helipad and parking lot was not worth the money these people spent for the homes they lived in. Not to mention it was the border of Pontiac, which was a less than desirable area.