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

  It was all just as so many had predicted all along, we said that if something of this magnitude ever happened the government would not be able to deal with it. We predicted that there would be complete and total breakdown of social rule in a very short period of time. One only had to look back at New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina to see what was coming only on a larger scale.

  This is the story of our survival and that of others we met along the way. The world would be a different place. Only the strong, prepared, and wise would be left to tell the story of what happened.

  Chapter 1: The Beginning

  I got up early that morning, yet another beautiful day in our private, isolated paradise. The sun was rising over the canyon, and the view was astonishing. I woke Ann so we could share the moment together. It was an incredible sunrise; just the two of us reveling in the splendor the world had to offer.

  My loving wife Ann is the strong type and just as smart as she is sexy. She is an avid animal lover who helped the alternative humane society, as an animal behaviorist, before we left Washington. Her love of animals was obvious to anyone who saw us as we traveled around the country with three dogs and two cats in our motor home. While me, I'm the strong not so silent type with an occasional goatee and a bit of extra baggage.

  That fateful day, Ann and I spent most of the morning enjoying the sun and fishing. As usual, Ann was catching most of the fish. I was in a different cove when I heard, "Peter come quick I caught a big one." I took off in her direction only to see her line go slack and hear Ann screaming at the fish for getting away, it was the funniest sight and so typical of Ann.

  Later that day as we were cooking the fish, we began to notice strange events. Sometime after noon all the birds took flight at once, and the dogs started running around acting like the sky was falling. Ann noticed their behavior and jokingly commented, "Looks like an earth quake coming."

  Even before I had a chance to reply we heard a deep rumble; then the ground started to roll, only slightly at first, but then the ground began to undulate like a wave! It wasn't a very big wave for us more like a slight undulation, but we were clearly in the midst of a large earthquake.

  I said, "It IS! a quake and this is lasting a long time. With it lasting this long it MUST be Cascadia rupturing along its entire length."

  Now frantic, Ann asked, "Oh My God what about our kids? NO! NNOOOO."

  There was nothing that I could possibly say, while we lived there we talked about what would happen if we were still there and it was not good. She knew exactly what our kids were experiencing; all I could do was hold her while the shaking continued. We knew that our kids still lived in the Sound and did not stand much of chance of making it through. We could not stop crying, knowing we just lost our babies.

  After several minutes Ann asked, "When is this going to end?"

  "Soon baby soon."

  It wasn't that much longer when all the shaking stopped.

  After all the shaking had finished we got up to find we were in good shape. Since we were a long distance from the fault, the quake only shook us up a bit. Even the satellite dish just needed a little tweaking in order for us to watch the news coming from undamaged areas.

  Crying Ann sobbed, "Our kids are…"

  I could no longer hold back my pain, I too was now crying. We held each other for what seemed like an eternity but I knew I had to be strong for the both of us. After we pulled ourselves together I got the dish pointed at the satellite again; we sat in awe as the news came in that every major city on the west coast had been obliterated.

  "Do you think we are going to still have this place to ourselves Peter?"

  "I don't think so. Even though we're several miles off the beaten path others will find it the same as we did."

  "So much for our peace and quiet."

  "I know but it's not like we have any way of controlling who finds their way up here, let alone stop them. The best we can do is try to get to know them and hopefully make friends with them, then team up and pool our resources. Bottom line is there's safety in numbers if they're on your side."

  "But how do we know who we can trust?" Then she sarcastically she answered herself, "I know, nobody."

  "The short answer to that is we can't, the only thing we have is our instinct, it has served us well our whole lives and we need to continue to trust it. The best thing we can do is develop a rapport with some, that will give us more strength against others."

  "We can't accept just anyone that comes up here."

  "You're right Ann we can't but we can't ignore them either, first off doing so will put us on the outside when others arrive. Secondly, we can't make it in this upside down world alone, we will need lots of help from now on."

  "I think you're wrong Peter but I hope you're right, I hope your instinct does not fail us."

  "Me too Ann but I don't know what else we could do. Do you have any suggestions or alternatives?"

  Ann quipped, "We could hook them up to a lie detector."

  "Not a bad idea, or all we have to do is let you talk to them; you say you can tell if someone is lying most the time."

  "Yea their mouth is moving, you know me Peter, I'm a cynic."

  "I know Ann, and I NEVER want you to stop being that way especially now."

  As we watched the news, bits and pieces of information came out of the harder hit zones by survivors that had made it out. They described images of absolute destruction; people looting stores and killing anyone for anything. The rest of the country was not directly affected by the quake, but it was devastated by the chaos that followed.

  We were alone at our remote location, but that didn't stay that way very long. As the news of the social deterioration continued, it became clear that the world we knew was no more. Social order had broken down and everyone was heading for the hills. Like rats running from a flood they came seeking the safety of the wilderness.

  We had left Washington completely self-sufficient; with our own power and water, seeds for every fruit and vegetable we would need, and weapons to hunt game or defend ourselves. We were as ready as we could be to live in a remote area for our temporary home.

  We had found the quiet and seclusion we always looked for, but getting there wasn't easy. It wasn't possible to reach it by car, as the road was impassable to anything with a low clearance, so that limited the number of people that could make it. Unfortunately, most of the new arrivals that did make it were under equipped and ill prepared for what was to come. Some came with only the clothes on their backs.

  Chapter 2: The Influx!

  They came in SUVs, trucks, and all sorts of recreational vehicles; they came in anything that could make it up the road. At first it was only one or two at a time but then they came in caravans.

  Most people that could not make it in their car stopped at lower elevations, but some continued on foot. There were families with small babies, couples, and single men and women; many had their pets with them. One group was a team of survivalist, armed to the teeth with no intention of letting others take their belongings. There was a wide range of ages but no elderly, maybe because most of them were not going to let anyone make them leave their homes.

  The influx of survivors only lasted a fairly short time, fewer people were able to get gas let alone travel, the roads had become a no man's land. Abandoned and burnt cars littered every road, wrecked by the initial quake, abandoned because they ran out of gas, dead, or simply stolen. It was pure hell; it looked like something out of a Hollywood post-apocalyptic movie, unfortunately it was real.

  The first to arrive were Beth and Ben, they were out camping on the river at a nearby National Park when the quake hit. Ben and Beth are very much like us. Ben was a stockbroker before the depression, he is a big guy easily 230 pounds but all muscle, he was clean-shaven but that didn't last very long.

  Ben is a funny man and like me has a quick wit and loves to use it, maybe that was why I liked him from the start. Beth is tall with incredible green eyes and as
sweet as could be. They are a laid back couple, it turns out they are our age as well, in their early fifties.

  They had a well-equipped motor home with all the comforts of home, and also had some extras just in case. They were far better armed than we were but didn't have the food stores we did. We decided that first night that we would hook up with them and watch out for each other and share our resources. As we sat by the fire I asked Ben where they came from and how they got there. Ben looked at Beth, shook his head slightly and with a long deep sigh he began.

  "When my unemployment ran out we decided to leave Salt Lake City and live full time in the motorhome as nomads. We had been staying at a nice park for a week when the quake hit, within days the park filled. Any place that you could fit anything was taken by the hordes of people that had left the surrounding cities to escape the disorder."

  "Did the Park Rangers try to stop anyone from coming in?"

  "No Peter, the Rangers were powerless to stop the influx, not that they even tried. Fortunately, I had topped off our motor home with diesel and propane before hitting the park so we decided to get out while we still could."

  Ann asked, "So where did you go and how did you get here?"

  "We headed south trying to get as far as we could from what was left of civilization we came upon the forest service roads that led us here."

  "Did you have any trouble getting here?"

  "It was insane Ann; people were shooting anyone that got in their way or had what they wanted. I'm sure if we hadn't left when we had someone would have taken our home. As it was we had to stand down a few people with our gun to make it out safely.

  While we were passing near Monroe, Utah, we came upon a family of four by a small car that appeared to be broken down. They were all outside their car with the hood up, roasting in the heat of the day when we pulled alongside them.

  The guy waved us down and asked me for some water. By this time, we already knew not to trust anyone because of how desperate people had become, so Beth had got up grabbed the twelve-gauge shotgun and stood in front of the door at the ready."

  Ann asked, "Where you scared Beth?"

  "Yes, I was scared out of my mind, but I knew that if someone tried to come through the door I was going to blow them away."

  Ben continued, "You should have seen her, she was like Annie Oakley, standing there with that shot gun. While I was distracted talking to the guy, his wife came around the passenger side trying to sneak up on us. His wife opened the door of the motor home and found herself staring down the barrel of Beth's shotgun only inches from her face."

  Beth laughed, "You should have seen her face, her jaw dropped and she froze in her tracks. I told her to back the hell off or I would blow her head off. She backed off real fast crying about how sorry she was and that she was desperate to take care or her kids."

  Ben continued, "After that they closed the hood, jumped in their car and sped away, funny how all of a sudden their car worked just fine."

  "You were lucky you didn't get killed."

  Beth came back "No Peter, she was lucky she was not killed, if she had taken one more step it would have been her last."

  Ben continued, "We found the more desperate people had become the more they were willing to commit acts of violence or deception to get what they wanted. You know the sad part was if they had simply asked for help we would have. After that we made our way out here."

  It was getting late so we all retired to our motor homes and crashed for the night. Ann and I wondered who else would show up and what type of horror story they would have.

  About midday the next day an old class B Ford van showed up. Two girls stepped out and introduced themselves as Tammy and Sandy, they were maybe in their mid-thirties.

  Sandy looked like a tomboy, with short hair, jeans and a tank top; I got the impression you did not want to piss this girl off. Tammy seemed kind and sweet and more reserved.

  We showed them around the camp then Ben and I helped Sandy get their camp set up, while the rest of the girls got dinner ready by the fire. I thought to myself this was getting to be a routine and I was afraid it was going to happen many more times While we were sitting around the fire I asked them their story. Sandy decided to tell us their harrowing tale of their experiences and journey up here.

  "The day before the quake we left Las Vegas to do some overdue camping. We were only planning on staying for two nights so we only had enough food for that time with only a little extra like chips and candy."

  Tammy jumped in, "We had everything we needed for S'mores" and laughed lightly.

  Sandy was not too happy about being interrupted; she looked at Tammy with the look you get from your mom when she didn't like what you did. Tammy pouted a little and ran her closed finger across her lips like she was zipping her lips closed.

  Sandy continued, "I don't know what time it was but I think it was after noon when the quake hit. Even as far from the fault as we were we felt the ground shake quite a bit. It was not so bad that we couldn't stand on our feet, but Tammy did get sick from the motion, she always gets carsick while we drive.

  That old Ford van over there has a nice soft bed in back and a simple kitchen with a stove so we are warm and dry, no sleeping on the ground or cooking over the fire for us."

  "Ford eh, a proud member of the order I see."

  "What? What do you mean order?"

  I looked at Sandy with this sly evil smile and began.

  "I coined a new acronym for Ford, one that I think fits many Ford drivers so well."

  "I've heard them all, Fix or repair…, Found on …"

  "Nope none of them, they are old and out dated, but still true. Mine is new and fits oh SOO well."

  "Ford stands for, FORD, Fraternal Order of Retarded Drivers."

  If looks could kill, Sandy gave me the coldest look. I guess she loves her Ford and didn't like being called retarded.

  Sandy shook her head with pursed lips in a disapproving way and continued. It seems I was right, not someone you want pissed at you.

  Sandy went on, "The campground where we were staying was just off the highway, so it filled up fast as people fled the cities. There was no order and at times we feared for our lives with drunks firing their guns and getting into fights. Sometime on the second or third day after the quake a large militia group rolled in and declared they were in charge and that everyone was to turn over anything of value including their keys, and that everyone now had to work for them or die.

  That night they picked a bunch of girls and forced them to go with them. Tammy and I figured it was only a matter of time before they came for us. If those assholes even tried to tell us we were their property and that we had to "'service their needs"', I would have taken something completely off."

  With that all of us laughed and we guys grabbed ourselves and cringed knowing exactly what she meant.

  Sandy continued, "The next day we decided that we were not going to let that happen, so we made our plans to get out. We waited for nightfall and when they picked their girls for that night we figured it was time to go. I unbuttoned the top buttons of my shirt to distract the guard, at the area they put our van, while Tammy snuck in to get the van."

  With this sly look in her eyes Tammy spoke up, "While I was there I slashed every tire I could so they couldn't come after us."

  "Yea that was good thinking on your part Tammy it probably saved our asses. I convinced the guard he was going to get lucky and told him we had a bed in our van, with that he got the keys and we headed for it. He opened the big double doors on the passenger's side and I got in first patting my hand on the bed while unbuttoning more buttons on my shirt, with the other hand I beckoned him to join me on the bed.

  Before the guy and I got there, Tammy used our spare key and was hiding in front, he was so distracted by me when he climbed in he didn't see Tammy so she hit him from behind and knocked him out. We stole his gun, tied him up, then we dumped him on the ground like the trash he was. Tammy started
the van and we took off. The men were so distracted with the girls that they did not hear us so we were able to get out fairly easily, never mess with an ex-cop."

  Ann was not surprised that people could be that screwed up, she said, "You're so lucky to have gotten out of there; I sure hope none of them find us up here."

  We continued to talk for a few more hours and even made some S'mores that the girls had brought.

  It was around noon on the fifth day when a monster forty-foot diesel pusher pulled up; This average looking guy steps out and said his name was Ramon, my first impression of him was that he was a charismatic type, he said he was an artist. He was followed by a squirrelly looking guy who introduced himself as Sam.

  Sam said he was a banker and it soon became clear that he was a bit of a loner, he kept to himself except around Ramon, maybe he was able to relate to him somehow. Both of them arrived from Albuquerque, after leaving town as soon as they heard the news about the west coast, Ramon said he knew it was Armageddon.