When The Fault Breaks: Life Will Never Be The Same Read online

  The four stood in front of the rest of the community while everyone clapped and cheered for them. It was a very emotional site one that will stay with us all for a long time. From the crowd we heard "SPEECH SPEECH." They looked at each other and nodded in Fred's direction, Fred reluctantly shook his head and agreed.

  "You all have elected the four of us as the council to keep things in order or deal with the bad things that may come up. I know all four of us will do so in a fair and sensible manner that will make you all proud. I think the first act of this council will be to nominate a Chairman. (With a sly smile he added) Someone that can act as a leader for us and keep us all from abusing this great power we now have."

  Laughter rang out by all.

  "The Chairman will also act as a tie breaker for when the four of us are divided over an issue. I am certain that every person in this room would pick the same person for that position, as I'm about to nominate. And I think that one person is Peter, he has been the driving force for us all and the only real choice. Let's see the hands of those in favor."

  With a VERY LOUD cheer every hand in the place went up and in many cases both hands.

  "Now I think that given the nature of this position, I will ask is there anyone opposed."

  To every one's surprise one hand went up, it was mine.

  Ann responded, "You don't have a say in this Peter, the people have spoken and it is you, so now shut up and say thank you."

  I dipped my head and rolled it slightly while kicking the floor and replied, "Yes Dear. Thank you," then looked up with a sly smile.

  Then in unison "SPEECH, SPEECH." I shook my head again and took a deep breath.

  "You all know I have no desire to be any bodies leader but it seems that you all do, so I will graciously accept it and will do the best job I can. Seeing how we are all here I think the first order of business for our new government would be to give our community a name. Several people have asked about it and it has been put off mostly because we all had bigger fish to fry. Now I think we should do it. The question is how to come up with a name?"

  Susie, a little six-year-old that joined us from Phoenix, spoke up in a little timid voice and asked.

  "Why don't we put out some names now and vote on one?"

  Joking I said, "Funny the things that come out of the mouths of babies."

  Clearly irritated Susie stomped her foot and with her hands on her hips and exclaimed, "I'm not a baby."

  "I'm sorry Susie it was just a figure of speech, please continue." Timid my ass.

  "Thank you Peter, I say we call it Little Haven because this IS our haven."

  "You know Susie I really like that one. Does anyone else have one?"

  Frank asked, "How about Eagles Nest?"

  "That is a nice one too."

  Becky spoke up, "I say we call it The Valley."

  "Nice … Are there any other ideas out there?"

  I looked around and did not hear anyone or see anyone raise their hand so I said, "Well then I will start with the last one first, all in favor of The Valley raise your hand."

  I looked out and saw a few of Becky's friend's hands go up.

  "Okay then, so how about Eagles Nest? All in favor?"

  Franks' friend's hands went up for that one but not a lot.

  "So all that is left is Little Haven, all in favor."

  The vast majority raised their hands including Becky.

  "Well it seems there will not be a need for a recount, our little home will be known as Little Haven."

  Everyone was happy with our new name. We all felt it described where we were and how we saw our new lives.

  The rest of the winter was mostly mild and seemed to ebb away. Spring was just around the corner and we all were looking forward to getting out more.

  Chapter 16: Spring Has Sprung

  It was early in the season and the spring thaw was well under way when we were hit by very heavy rains followed by heavy snow then followed again by a very wet snow. The next couple days were also exceptionally warm which caused a tremendously heavy snowmelt. All that water came rushing down the valley and flooded everything.

  Almost everyone had been very careful about where they had built their home but the Jones. They had fallen in love with the site they found and figured it was far enough from a high cut bank that they were sure they were safe. They built their house almost two hundred feet back from the bank in the belief it would be ok.

  It turned out that it was not the case. They were all comfy in their cabin when they heard a horrendous sound and felt their cabin shake violently.

  Cindy, Moe's wife asked, "What is that Moe"?

  "I don't know Cindy; it sounds like a freight train rumbling past. Katie, look out that window and tell me what you see."

  As Katie looked out the window you could only imagine the terror in her eyes.

  She screamed, "DADDY!!!... DAAADDDDYYYY!!!"

  Moe came running over and Katie pointed out the window hysterical and said, "Look daddy the river is really close to the house."

  Moe looked out the window expecting to simply see floodwater but that was not what he saw. He started screaming to his family.

  "Cindy, grab Jason and get out, most of the yard is gone and the river is only a few feet from the house."

  "Do you mean it flooded?"

  Moe answered, "No."

  The river had cut almost the entire bank out and eliminated the most of the back yard now the river was less than ten feet from the house.

  Frantically Moe screamed, "The river is taking out the yard we need to get out of here."

  Moe grabbed Katie and they all ran to their neighbors the Franses. Scared they all spent the rest of the night there hoping they would not lose their house. Luckily the river had taken all of the bank it was going to that night.

  After nearly losing their lives, Moe decided he needed to move their house to a safer place. As soon as the flood was gone we all took his house apart and moved it on to higher ground and had it rebuilt in less than a week. They loved the new site and were positive that the stream wouldn't reach them this time.

  As spring moved in we were able to spend more time outside. The stream continued to flow heavy and flood the fields we had prepared before winter hit. We knew if we flooded the fields from the stream properly we could both fertilize them naturally and prevent flooding where we didn't want it, it worked great.

  Back at our ranch, before winter we had cleared the area of any vegetation and tilled the ground. We fertilized the soil and built a retaining wall for the expected flood waters before the first snow and waited. As the floodwaters receded we were glad to see our plans had worked. The floodwaters were gone but our retaining field still held almost two feet of floodwater.

  "Look Ann, now that the silt has settled we can see the bottom of the field again. That means we are ready to slowly let out the water."

  "Peter look, we can see fish in the water."

  "That's right Ann when the water level was higher the fish got trapped behind the wall just like the silt did."

  "YEA! Look at all that fish, and we don't even have to catch them. Now what do we do with them?"

  "We make a fish trap at the out flow to catch them all as we drain the field."

  "Okay I got it Peter. I'm only taking out just enough rocks to lower it bit by bit."

  Ever so slowly the water level dropped, the water continued to drop with the removal of more rocks until it was almost gone. Then we were able to corral the fish into the trap so it was easy to catch them.

  "It worked Peter, look at the fields, look at all the silt left behind by the stream as the water flowed out, it must be six inches thick."

  "That's right Ann, all that silt contains the minerals that plants need to thrive."

  "Once all the fields are dry we can till in the compost we've been saving and the plants will grow like mad."

  "Hey Peter why did we drain all the fields, I thought we were using some for rice?"

&n
bsp; "Those fields are also drained so we can plow and fertilize them as well. Then we will smooth them out with logs and flood them when we are ready to plant the rice seedlings we have been growing the last month or so. Then we open up the fish trap and return the fish to the flooded field. They will both fertilize it and keep pests out."

  "But why do we need all that water?"

  "Well first it is the ideal way of growing rice, and second it prevents the weeds from growing and lastly it keeps out vermin, it the best way to grow rice. A bit before harvest time we will drain the fields again to let it dry then we can harvest it easier and we also harvest the fish."

  It was an amazing sight to behold. All the fields we prepared in the fall were now green with little seedlings sprouting up and reaching for the sun. After the meeting the council divided up all the seeds we had to ensure everyone had what they needed and to coordinate the crops.

  We had a little of almost everything at our ranch so that if something happened we always had a second source so not to lose any variety of seeds. As the weather warmed we started on the barn for our ranch. It was not going to be a very big one but it was going to be multi-purpose.

  It was an impressive sight, every member of Little Haven showed up to help. We fell trees and hewed the lumber to the shape we needed for framing. The chain saws made short work out of that task. Then in a flurry of craziness the frame was up. It was amazing, we raised the barn in just less than three days.

  Many barns were built that spring as we all went from farm to farm building one after another. After a spell we all got down our part and we were able to build them even faster. In the end every farm that wanted a barn had one.

  Chapter 17: The First Arrivals

  We were well into spring and everything was almost completely thawed, you could see the spring flowers poking through the snow and the stream had receded back in its banks. Life had fallen into a blissful routine when they arrived; I remember the day very well. From our ranch we could see where we came off the mountain. Ann was outside working when I heard.

  "Peter, come quick."

  "What is it Ann?"

  "Someone is coming down the mountain."

  "Hurry go get Ben and have him bring both our guns."

  "I'm already on my way," she said as she disappeared around the cabin.

  Ann returned with Ben and our guns so Ben and I took off on the ATV. As we came around a switchback we saw them.

  "Oh my God, is that you Allen?"

  "It is Peter; it seems you are always finding me in quite the mess."

  "Where is Karl?"

  Allen stood there for the longest time and dropped his head. You could see tears welling up in all their eyes as Allen told us he was gone.

  "You guys are in bad shape, so let's get you up to our ranch and take care of whatever you need."

  "Thanks Ben."

  "Let's get going, you can throw your gear in the back."

  "Thanks Peter, again, you are life savers."

  Everyone jumped on the ATV and we headed back up to the X Bar.

  As we came around the last bend Allen could see the ranch.

  "Holy shit Peter, is this your spread? We saw this from up above and was hoping it was."

  "Well sort of, it belongs to us, Ben and Beth, and Tammy and Sandy, we all built it together."

  We got to the ranch and were unloading when Ann came running up and threw her arms around Sheryl and both of them started crying like babies.

  Through the tears Ann asked, "Are you alright?"

  "We are better now that we found you guys."

  "What the hell happened to you?"

  "What did happen up there Allen?"

  "It was hell Peter, just plain hell."

  Beth barked out, "We can go over all that later when they are warm, dry, fed and rested. For now, let's get you guys some food and warm clothes.

  "Okay Allen but let's get you guys a seat."

  "Now that is something I would love."

  As word made its way to the rest of the community everyone made their way to the ranch. Most came with food both cooked and not, clothes, all sorts of stuff.

  Later that night, after the kids went to bed in Ben and Beth's loft, we were sitting by the fire with only their friends, the rest returned home. Allen decided it was time to tell us what had happened. Everyone fell silent because they all wanted to hear the story.

  "Some time after you all left we saw a large group of nomads on foot making their way up the road from the valley below. First it was a couple of scouts that bolted when they saw us. Randell took them both out with two shots as they started running back down the hill. Of course their friends heard the shots and when their guys did not return they came up fast."

  "Did the road trap work at all?"

  "Yea Greg it worked very well, it wiped out a large number of their guys, but not all of them. All that lived were really pissed off. Killing so many of their friends fueled a rage in them that we could not defeat. They came at us so hard and fast we could not stop them and they had no intention of letting anyone live.

  They tore through the camp shooting and burning everything. Karl was in your home Peter when they got there. They did not even look to see if anyone was inside they just started burning the whole thing all the way around.

  Sheryl and I were on the opposite side of the lake with Ken and Kate fishing when they arrived so they did not see us. We watched in horror as our home burned to the ground knowing Karl was still inside."

  We could see tears rolling off everybody's faces as Allen told us the horrific story, there was not a dry eye in the room.

  "You don't need to go on Allen everyone here would understand."

  "It's alright Peter I'll go on. We watched as the group made their way around the lake toward the RV fort we built after you left, but everyone in there fought back. They lost many more of their men trying to take the fort. Then we heard a large explosion as one of the nomads fired an RPG into the gate and blew it to pieces. It was not long after that that the fort fell, but not before we killed even more of their men.

  Sheryl and I knew there was nothing we could do for anyone and we had to go, so we took off in the direction you guys left and headed down the way the horses did. We stopped at a good vantage point to see if anyone had followed us but saw no one. We came to the conclusion that no one had seen us.

  I can't tell you how happy we were that you guys had put that bugout stash where you did. We were able to get to it before we headed down the valley. We made the MRE's in it last a while and all the rest of the stuff saved our asses. You did a really good job of covering your tracks, if I had not been there when you were going over the plan I would not have had a clue on where to go.

  We were about half way here when we found a small cave not far from a creek. Thanks to the skills you'll have taught us we were able to find food and water, as well as make fire. We knew winter would be upon us soon enough so when we found the cave we decided to hold up there until spring.

  We closed most of the opening except a few inches at the top for ventilation and put up a block in front of the opening to divert the wind and block any view of the cave. We made a bed with moss and other stuff and all slept together to keep warm. All and all it was not a bad little shelter, and as you can see we made it through the winter.

  Every now and then we'd find a sign of your travels and I knew what valley you were heading to so we headed there ourselves."

  Ben said, "Wow I can't believe you made it through last winter, we were hammered in February."

  "We were never slammed by any massive storm; it must have passed us by."

  "Well it is getting late, the kids are at Ben and Beth's next door, Allen you and Sheryl can stay with us in our loft. We are tired so I think we're calling it a night, tomorrow we will show you around Little Haven."

  "You named it?"

  "Yea a cute little girl came up with the name."

  Before Becky left she said, "When they bring
you down in the morning there is room in the cave for all of you if you are interested. I can assure you it is far nicer than the one you stayed in over the winter."

  "Thanks Becky we would be happy to come check it out tomorrow."

  "It's my pleasure Sheryl, we would love to share our home with you."

  Our new guests were clearly tired and the kids were long since asleep when Allen and Sheryl went to sleep they crashed hard and slept in.