When The Fault Breaks: Life Will Never Be The Same Page 36

  "This is the United Aztec Militia, you have entered our controlled air space please identify yourself and state your purpose."

  "This is Peter, I'm the leader of a group coming in to participate in the swap meet and the regional meeting for the Rocky Mountain Republic, we request permission to land."

  "Have you received the expectation regarding your weapons, and do you accept those restrictions?"

  "We have received the message and will comply with your restrictions."

  "Then you have permission to land, look for the man directing you into your location."

  "That's affirmative, request permission to do a fly over to get a lay of the land before landing in order to ensure our security."

  "Granted you are cleared for flyover and landing."

  To be safe we did our fly over to get a feel for the area and to make sure it looked legit. We could see camps set up all over and all sorts of wares spread out in front of them. We were confident now that it was legit and landed where we were directed. As we exited the helo four armed men approached.

  "My name is Sergeant Ramos and I am here to collect your weapons and ensure you do not have any on board except for what you may be looking to sell. Those will be rendered safe until you or your buyers leave the area. You are free to hold onto your knives. Are there any questions?"

  "Nope, and we do not have any weapons to sell or trade. The weapons we have on us are all there is."

  We all handed over our weapons.

  "Alright we landed you in your sales location, you are free to set up any type of camp and sales area you wish as long as you do not go beyond the roped out area on the ground. Who is the leader of this group?"

  I stepped forward and put out my hand.

  "That would be me, my name is Peter and I'm the leader."

  The sergeant stepped up and shook my hand.

  "It's nice to meet you Peter, if you can come with me the rest are free to get set up."

  As we walked across the fairgrounds to the headquarters we had a chance to talk. It was nice to see the Sergeant be so open and frank.

  "Thank you, sergeant it's nice to meet you too."

  "Where are you from?"

  "Well that is a little hard to answer, we have a little village that we built deep in the Rocky Mountains in what used to be Colorado. It never existed before so there is no way to really describe where, other than coordinates."

  "Strange, before the quake that would have sounded odd but now… not so much," we both laughed.

  "Well we are heading to the headquarters, so you can get registered and meet the people that put this gig on."

  "That would be great. How long have you guys had this level of security and normalcy?"

  "It's only been about six months, ever since we took out the tyrant that had control over the area. He was one of those people that thought with the fall of the U.S. government that he was going to take over this region. He had been successful for some time but we took him out."

  "Hoollyy sshhit. Was it bloody?"

  "Amazingly no, it was more like a coup. Many of the men here today were more than happy to turn on the asshole. They went in while he slept and killed him. Now we have a local government running Aztec and many of the smaller cities have rebounded and have their own as well."

  "We have not been in contact with anyone since the quake. We live in an isolated location and have not heard any news about what is going on out here. We scan the ham radio frequencies and the FM bands as well listening for any new transmission and had not heard any until yours."

  "That's because up until recently it was not safe to transmit, people like that clown we just defeated would come in and take whatever you had."

  "Yea that is why we did not reply to your broadcast. We don't want anyone to triangulate in on our position."

  "What is the name of your village and how big is it?"

  "We call it Little Haven because it is our little haven from the crap that has been the rest of the world. At this time, we have a hundred people living there. We walked over a hundred miles ever deeper into the wilderness looking for the right place to set up. We found the most incredible place and have made quite the home for ourselves."

  "Are there any militia there?"

  "Nope, we do however have a very well prepared bunch of Preppers. It turns out we were all right." We both laughed.

  "Well Peter we're here, I'll be moving on to the next group. You just head inside the others will take good care of you."

  "Thanks Sarg, I hope to chat more with you."

  "I would like that, maybe I will make it to your camp tonight."

  "That would be great, we would like to hear what you have seen."

  "All right then, I would love to hear more about Little Haven."

  The outside of the building was beat up, many of the windows were covered with plywood, the walls were covered with graffiti, and you could see there had been a fire. A barricade surrounded the building with long barbed razor wire. I entered through a gate that had guards on both sides with AK-47's and full hard-plate reinforced personal armor. Even the stairs showed clear signs of the battle that happened here.

  As I entered the building I had to pass through a metal detector. There were some very kind people ready to guide me where I needed to be and they brought me over to the sweetest little thing I have met in a long time.

  "Welcome my name is Eve, and I will sign you in and help you get set up."

  "Hi Eve it's nice to meet you, my name is Peter and I'm the leader of Little Haven. Where are you from?"

  "It's nice to meet you to Peter. I was born and raised right here in Aztec. So did you find your site okay?"

  "Yes we landed on it."

  "Oh you guys were that helicopter I heard fly over."

  "Yea that was us, we wanted to see what was here before we landed. You guys have one hell of a setup going here. How many groups or booths are there?"

  "Well you guys make fifty outsider groups and we have another 25 more local rep's. So how many in your group?"

  "Four counting myself."

  "Okay here are four tags, the red striped one is for you as the leader. You need to have them on while you are here. That way we know everyone here has been screened."

  "Do you need all our names?"

  "No, you are welcome to put yours on the registration, but given the state of the world it is not required. But a first name would be great if you will."

  "Not a problem."

  I spent a few minutes filling out the form and was happy to see no questions about who we were or where we live. We spent a few more minutes doing paper work and she gave me a printout of the schedule.

  "Well I hope I have covered everything okay and that you will enjoy your stay here in Aztec."

  "I'm sure you have Eve, and I'm sure others will be able to help if I need it. Thank you for all your help and good luck with things staying calm here."

  I was impressed by how many people were in there getting signed up. There was a sign up list for the republic's meeting so I signed up for that. I was looking forward to learning what was going on out there.

  As I made my way back to our site I saw several things I wanted to take a closer look at. I was expecting to help set up but was happy to find it was all done and we already had many people standing in front of it waiting for their turn to talk to someone.

  I stepped into the pop-up gazebo and saw Bill approached by an older woman. Her face told me that she has lived a tough life working in the sun. As she walked up she put out her hand and introduced herself.

  "Hey there my name is Jamie. Where did you guys find this wheat, there is none to be found for a hundred miles around here?"

  Bill shook her hand and proudly replied, "Hi Jamie my name is Bill and we grow and mill it ourselves. As a matter as a fact, I was one of the ones that ground that very bag."

  "It's nice to meet you Bill."

  The women held the ten-pound bag open under her nose and took a
deep breath, her eyes lit up and a pleasant smile of recognition came to her face. She took a second deeper breath and with an even bigger smile exclaimed.

  "Oh My Gosh, this smells soo fresh."

  "That's because we milled it two days ago, just for this meet. We keep most of our grain whole until we are ready to use it, so it stays fresher."

  Jamie exclaimed, "I don't have any gold or silver and I'm afraid I can't afford to trade any of my ammo. Would you be interested in some quilts for some flour?"

  Bill is one hell of a trader so I left it in his capable hands to work out a good deal.

  "I think we can work out a fair trade for those Jamie. I know several families that would love a warm quilt."

  "They are made from scraps I've collected from abandoned houses."

  Bill asked, "So how many do you have?"

  "Well I have ten with me here and can get twenty more if you are interested."

  Bill looked over at me, and raised his eyebrows with that should we look, I nodded yes, and then he mouthed, "All of them?"

  Again I nodded yes. He turned back to her, "We will take all of them."

  Elated the women said I can have the rest here in a few minutes."

  I could tell Bill was excited but he is a master at hiding it from others.

  "So with that done let's talk turkey, all thirty quilts for..."

  Bill turned to me unsure of what I wanted and asked, "How much should we charge?"

  "You are the one that put so much of your sweat into making it, who better to know what it's worth."

  "Thanks Peter," he turned to the woman, "How about all thirty quilts for fifty pounds of fresh ground flour?"

  "I think that is a bit low for thirty of them, how about one hundred pounds?"

  "Yea that's too much, let's say we sweeten the deal a bit per se, how about sixty pounds of flour and we throw in ten pounds of sugar."

  "WHAT!! You have sugar?!!"

  Showing her excitement was a mistake now Bill knew he had her where he wanted her even though he would never take advantage of her.

  "Sure we have rice and soy too."

  "Alright let's say fifty pounds of flour, twenty pounds of rice and ten pounds of sugar?"

  Bill paused for a few, scratched his Goatee a bit, looked at me (I shrugged my shoulders in an okay manner) so he put his hand out and said, "You have a deal, and I'm going to throw in a ten-pound sack of soybeans, do you need help getting the rest here?"

  "No I have a few sons that can do that. My husband will be so happy with what I got for the quilts. I told him it wasn't a waste of time making them all."

  Bill said, "You tell him sister."

  She was back in only ten minutes with three wheel barrels filled with the quilts. She then used the wheel barrels to take away all the grain. It did not take long for all our food stock to be traded off. What really surprised me was that the hemp products sold out even faster than the grains.

  We did not want gold so all our trades were for commodities that we could all use. David had an agenda of his own. Well it was for all of us but David was looking for hardware. He was able to find a booth that looked like a hardware store. He got boxes of switches and all boxes, along with spools of wire and all sorts of pipe and fittings. Though we brought many of those items from the motor homes we wanted more. In the end we had made one hell of a haul on this trip.

  Since we still had a few odds and ends left and we still needed to spend the gold, we stayed one more night. We were able to trade for various live laying hens and a couple roosters from different farmers, handfuls of various clothes, and an assortment of foods to eat while we were there including my favorite, donuts. After we had sold everything we could, we went looking at what there was to get with the gold.

  We were on the outside edge of the swap meet when we approached what, to the untrained eye, would have appeared to be a big pile steel, but not to David.

  "Peter is that what I think it is?"

  "If you think it is a thresher David, you would be right."

  The man must have heard us because he chimed in, "I see I have a couple men that know what they are looking at. You are right, it is an old horse drawn thresher with metal wheels that won't go flat. Only a handful of people knew what it was when they saw it."

  "That's because David here was a farmer before the quake."

  I still am, remember Peter, "We both laughed.

  I reached up and put my hand out and introduced myself.

  "Hi my name is Peter, and this is David he is our best farmer. Could he check out your thresher?"

  "Sure my name is Charlie, be my guest."

  "So David, seeing as how you know more about this than I do, I will leave to you to work out a good deal."

  David stepped up and did a thorough inspection of the thresher. The man had it on blocks so we could turn the wheels to ensure it drove the rest of the parts. It needed all the wood replaced but that part would be easy. As David looked it over he kept nodding his head slightly, mentally noting what he saw.

  Then David turned and asked, "So Charlie what are you hoping to get out of it?"

  "Well I have all the food that I need, but I'm low on ammo."

  "I'm sorry to say that we don't have any ammo, as a matter as a fact we need some ourselves. But I did see a guy a few rows down that has a large hoard of a variety of calibers."

  "Yea but he is only looking for gold to trade and I don't have any gold."

  David smiled as he looked at me with a sly look, then turned to Charlie and said, "Well you are in luck tonight, gold is what we have to trade and we would be interested in the thresher. The only thing is, can we come to a deal that works for both of us?"

  "I'm sure we can David."

  The two men went at it for what seemed like the longest time and in the end they came up with a deal that got us a functional thresher and we still had enough gold left over to get the ammo we needed and even a mountable .50cal and plenty of ammo for it.

  Now it was time for me to attend the meeting, I was both excited and apprehensive as I entered the hall. The security was very high and there were armed men on either side of a man standing near the pedestal. He stepped up and tapped the mic.

  Chapter 46: A New Map

  "Welcome everyone, my name is General Richard Cline. I am the general in charge of the four corners region of the Rocky Mountain Republic. I have been tasked to inform all of you that we have established a new central government that covers all of what used to be Colorado, Utah and the northern half of both New Mexico and Arizona.

  We have stopped the advance of Mexico into New Mexico and Arizona and stopped dictators throughout the region and we have tried to give you some semblance of a normal life like this swap meet tonight.

  We have control of all the military bases within our boundaries as well as all the National Guard Stations and their arsenals. We now have over five thousand troops in the entire area and are always looking for more soldiers, men or women. And as you can see by the lights, we have provided power for some areas.

  We have an elected Governor for the region and hope to include all the cities, towns, and any little settlement within our borders. If any of you out there represent one of those places, and have not heard about us, feel free to come see me after this meeting and we can go over more of what that means for both you and the region as a whole.

  I am sure it is not news to anyone that there is no single central government running what used to be the United States. But there are a few other regions like ours that have formed for strength and safety.

  For a time, Chicago was governed by what was known as the Eastern States of America, which went half way to the east coast. Unfortunately, it had fallen into Chinese hands. Since the Canadians did not like having China on their doorstep, they teamed up with Texas to kick out the Chinese, then they returned home. When the Canadians left, there was a power void in the region and from what we can tell, that void has not been filled.

  There i
s little left of the west coast, but what is left is inhabited by small bands of roving bad guys. There is nothing left of the Pacific Northwest. There is hope, though, that after a few years' people can return to parts of the region. Eastern Washington and Montana still have major fighting between militia groups. Since the quake, thousands have died as the competing groups have fought for control.

  In case any of you don't know New York City was burned to the ground and DC was nuked by a rogue sub captain. The Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant melted down and has made the entire region uninhabitable because the fallout spread all the way to the coast and beyond. The southeast was heaviest hit and Florida was invaded by Cuba.