When The Fault Breaks: Life Will Never Be The Same Page 4

  "We are not a couple; we are not that kind of friends."

  "You protest way too much Sam."

  "Funny guys, no we are really just lifelong friends."

  "Okay so that's everyone in here at least, there are a whole bunch more outside our walls that you can meet later. So tell us a bit about you guys."

  "Well my name is Allen; I was a carpenter before all this mess."

  "This is my wife Sheryl."

  Tammy replied, "It's nice to meet all of you."

  Motioning to his left Allen went on, "Our three kids here are Ken, Kate and Karl; they are five, six and seven respectively."

  "That is cool, each of them started with a K."

  "Yea Ann, it was Sheryl's idea."

  Beth asked, "So how did you guys make it here? There are a lot of bad people out there you had to get past."

  By this time word of their arrival made its way through the camp and the fort had filled up fast. Everyone wanted to hear the latest word from the outside. Many brought food and clothes to give to them.

  Allen spoke up, "We were in Flagstaff Arizona when the quake hit, and it shook us up a bit and mostly destroyed our home. At least we were still able to be inside so we had a place to stay and were able to get news of what had happened. I was shocked by the level of destruction that far away, when we heard that the west coast was gone for good we knew we were in trouble.

  It did not take a rocket scientist to see that the country was not going to be able to make it through this intact so we started planning our next move. Many in town had already looted the stores so most of them were already empty when we got there. We loaded up the minivan with what we could find, we loaded all our camping gear and anything else we could get in, or on, the van.

  We headed east on I-40 hoping to make our way to family in New Mexico when we came upon a roadblock near the Petrified Forest National Park. There was no way to get past the road block so I tried to turn around to get away from them but found they had come up behind us with AK47's pointed at us.

  A large militia group had taken control of the parks headquarters and Visitors Center and stopped travelers on the highway as they approached it. Whenever anyone fell into their snare they confiscated everything of value, and forced everyone into slave labor. There were armed men standing over all of us at all times like a prison work detail.

  The militia was drafting any males over sixteen to become part of their army whether you wanted to or not. Everyone else was forced to work for them to support their army doing whatever their leader saw fit. I worked in the motor pool washing vehicles and doing other maintenance, I was making plans to get us all out so I made sure one truck was full of gas.

  The truck was an old one with two fuel tanks and easy to hot wire. After a week there I saw an opportunity to get out. Late that night, like most nights, the militia had been drinking heavily so most of them were drunk out of their minds. The day of our planned escape I was able to disable several vehicles to block the rest so we had enough of a head start on them that they weren't able to catch us.

  We made our way out of the main compound area and into the motor pool without being seen. Then we got in the truck that I had strategically parked facing the gate and we hauled ass out of there. We crashed the gate as we left the park, the men at the gate were firing at us but they were too drunk to hit anything.

  We traveled east on Interstate 40 until just before daybreak when we reached Gallop, New Mexico. This was only a few miles from where our family lived but what we saw before we got there broke our hearts. The city lay in ruins, some buildings were still burning when we arrived, and there was not a soul to be found. Cars were strewn about the streets some of them burnt others laying on their tops or sides; whatever hit this town did so and moved on. It was a very eerie place, like death had just passed through.

  We found a residential area that had not been completely destroyed but was abandoned. We found a couple houses that had gas cans for a mower, so we were able get some gas; we even found some canned food.

  We spent the night there and rested, we had no lights or fire; we figured someone could come along like us and we did not want to be seen. Our brother lived north of Gallop so we headed up US 491 only to find town after town in the same shape.

  The next night as we approached a small town, we could see a dim light in one of the houses. We stopped several houses back and I approached quietly on foot to see who was inside I almost messed myself when I looked in the window.

  Here was this gun right in my face and someone yelling at me to put my hands up, so I did as I was told. I could see he was not alone, his wife and kids were peeking around a corner. I told him I meant him no harm and asked only to be allowed to move on.

  The man saw my wife and kids outside and lowered his gun and told us to get in quick and to put the truck out of site in the garage. We shared some of the food we had and we all ate a nice meal that night. I asked him about all the destruction we had seen and he said most of it was by the people that lived there."

  Allen described what John, the dad passed on to him.

  "In city after city there was rioting; all the stores were broken into, stripped of everything of value then set on fire. I was in Albuquerque when the quake hit, though we felt the quake, it only did minor damage.

  Over the next couple of days, it became clear that the government had lost control and called out the National Guard. It turns out that the commander of the New Mexico National Guard was also the leader of the largest militia group in New Mexico. Long ago the leader of the militia joined the National Guard and became the commander of the local armory in order to gain access to the keys to the toys.

  He ordered all his followers to also join the Guard and all of them made up the local unit and slowly replaced any non-followers by lying and getting them kicked out. Then when the government called out the Guard there was no one to oppose them. They were both the Guard and the militia, which enabled them to take control of everything.

  Tanks rolled into the city firing randomly and killing scores of people just trying to get away. The bridges in and out of the city had been destroyed, so everyone that didn't make it out fast enough was stuck there.

  It was difficult but we were able to get out in time and we headed as far away as we could and did not care where we were going. That night we could see Albuquerque burning in the distance and knew at that time it was all over, the world we knew and loved was gone. Eventually we made our way north and here we are."

  Allen continued their story, "That night we took turns standing watch and got the first good night's sleep in a long time. We traveled by night without lights so not to be seen and continued north trying to reach my brother. We didn't get very far before we could see lights at a roadblock ahead, we pulled off the highway and made a large loop around the roadblock the last few miles to my brother's home. When we arrived we found it was burned to the ground and their house was gone. We could only hope they made it out safe.

  We used to camp up here as kids so when we left my brother's we headed here. We made it part of the way before we ran out of gas and continued on foot. As we approached that big camp below here we were able to see and hear the militia before they saw us.

  We easily made our way around them without being seen. I already knew what they were like and had no intention of getting involved with any militia after that nightmare in the park. It took us some time to make our way up here; we hoped it would be deserted."

  Allen laughed and said, "I sure got that wrong," everyone else laughed as well.

  Chapter 4: The Militia Has Arrived

  The last to make it to our camp was what appeared to be a large paramilitary company wearing fatigues and riding on ATV's. Almost everyone here had encountered militia in their treks and most had to run for their lives to get away. That was why we took several precautions to be ready for them.

  One of those precautions was to post a watch on the overlook scanning the valley below so we
would not be caught off guard. Ramon and Sam were on the afternoon watch that day, when Sam spotted something moving.

  "Hey Ramon what is that over there on the switch back on the other side of the valley up by our mile marker four?"

  "I can't tell Sam it is too far away, pass me the binoculars please."

  "Ramon, please tell me I didn't see what I think I saw."

  "Sorry Sam you are right, it's a convoy of ATV's carrying a bunch of guys in fatigues, sound the alarm Sam it looks like a militia is on the road to camp."

  We had wired up a communication system with the lookout so that the watch could inform us if they saw something. It was an old sound powered phone that Ramon had as part of his Preppers gear. A Navy sound powered phone set up comes with two phones and spools of wire so you can rig it anywhere. It is powered by sound, so no batteries are needed.

  My stomach dropped when the growler we set up in our fort squawked to life telling me someone was calling, it was Sam informing us of the approaching column; Ben and I alerted everyone else. Everyone knew what to do because we practiced this for some time. We all grabbed our weapons and headed down the road to the traps we set in the road at choke points for just this event.

  "Ben let's get to the observation point and see what we are up against."

  "Alright Peter I will meet you there; I need to get my gun."

  "Hey grab both of mine too will you?"

  "Sure will Peter."

  When we got to the lookout, Ramon and Sam were watching the convoy. We had marked every mile of the trail on the opposite side of the valley to tell us how far away they were. The time it took for them to reach the next marker told us how fast they were moving based on travel time from one marker to the next.

  "What do you have Ramon?"

  "A convoy was passing mile marker four when we saw them. They are almost to mile marker five now Peter. That means they are going around ten miles per hour. That puts them at the bottom of the valley near dark."

  "Thanks Ramon you guys have done a great job. I figure they will most likely stop and make camp and spend at least one night at the stream. We will need to watch them to see when they leave. If they continue traveling at the same speed it will put them up here by midday if they leave the stream at first light. We will need to keep a close eye on their movements including watching for scouts that may come up looking ahead of the column."

  Sam said, "I would put money on that Ben because that is exactly what I would do."

  As we expected they stopped for the night at the stream, so we sent everyone back to camp.

  "Ramon I want you to go tell everyone to stand down, but to be back at their post first thing in the morning and to be ready at any time."

  "Ok I will take care of that Peter."

  After a long night vigilantly watching the valley, Henry and Bill, who had the early watch, noticed movement below. Henry was a burly man with a jolly laugh. Before the quake Henry was a stonemason from just north of the Grand Canyon. Bill is a little guy with a cheesy smile from somewhere in Utah, before the quake he was janitor at a school.

  Ben and I were already up so we grabbed Ramon and Sam and headed to the lookout to check if there was any activity below.

  "So Bill what is happening down there?"

  "We just saw the first movements a minute ago so we didn't have time to call you before you got here. It looks like they just got up and do not appear to be getting ready to leave yet."

  Ben said, "My bet is that they will stay a couple of nights resting."

  "You may be right Ben, but I bet they will be sending scouts out during the day to see what is ahead of them."

  Ben asked, "What do we do if the scouts make it here and see us Peter? If we detain them the rest will come looking for them and will not be very happy. If they find us and go back, they may come in hot."

  "That, my friend, is a very good question, but one thing is certain, we can't harm them unless they strike first."

  Henry called out, "Well Peter it's one we will not have to wait long to find out, a couple ATV's are heading up. Wait, it looks like the entire column is heading out, seems we are all wrong."

  "Well the good side of that is we don't have to deal with an advanced scout. They are moving slowly so we will have at least a few hours before they would make it up here. Get the word out so everyone can man their posts. Henry you and Dan head down to the rockslide trigger and get ready to release it if I give you the signal. Oh and just in case you don't know, if they shoot me there is no need to wait for my signal."

  We all got a bit of a laugh out of that, it helps in tense situations. Just then we heard a large explosion, we looked down the valley and saw that they had blown up the bridge crossing the stream at the bottom of the valley. I looked at Ramon and told him to hurry and get everyone ready.

  "Yes sir we are on our way."

  "Ben I'm glad you are here; I have dreaded this day. I hope we don't need to drop all those boulders on them it would not be a pretty sight."

  "I know Peter but we have to do what we have to do."

  Every able body was given a weapon and formed a line down the road. They were hiding behind boulders we had placed along the road for that purpose.

  "We have both the high ground and the element of surprise on our side so let's use it wisely."

  "Peter it looks like the scouts are about ten minutes ahead of the rest of them."

  "Okay Ben let's get down to the first choke point to meet them, so the rest will be in the kill zone and at least most of them will be inside the boulder fall trap."

  "Alright Peter, are you ready for this?"

  "I am; I just hope this does not turn into a blood bath for any of us."

  "I second that Peter."

  In the month or so before we had plenty of time to rig the road as a kill zone. There was also a good choke point just below camp where we set explosives. A little further down, just past a small curve, we rigged tons of rock to fall along a hundred yards of the road. If triggered they would fall down and kill any intruders and prevent others from coming any further.

  I stood just above the choke point with the explosives just below my position. As I stood there I could hear the ATVs coming up the road. When they came into view I saw a .50cal machine gun mounted on the front ATV. I stepped out on the road.

  "Stop right there and identify yourself," I called out as I held out my hand in a stopping gesture.

  The ATV stopped and I could see the front passenger speaking into a hand held radio while the back one stood up and manned the .50 cal.

  A few minutes later another ATV pulled alongside the first one and stopped. That one also had a .50cal mounted on the roll bar. A few minutes later a third ATV pulled up and stopped. The rest of the column held back, luckily most of them were in the kill zone.

  One guy got off the third ATV and made it a point for me to see him lay his weapon on the seat and started walking our way. First he had held up his jacket while turning around, then with his hands in the air he approached us.

  He called out, "As you can see I am unarmed, we come in peace; we didn't think anyone else was up here."

  I held my weapon above my head and motioned to Ben to come take it. He came down took it and returned to his post.

  Before he left I quietly said, "Ben, you know what to do if they shoot."

  "I do, but please be careful Peter."

  I laughed and asked in a sarcastic way, "You think? But thanks for stating the obvious."

  I turned and headed toward the man, and in the same manner he used, showed him I was unarmed.

  As I approached, I said, "I think we can both lower our hands now, no one is going to shoot if you really do come in peace."

  We both dropped our hands and met half way. I reached out my hand and introduced myself.

  "Hi there my name is Peter and I am as close to a leader here as we have, to whom do I have the pleasure of talking to?"

  The man replied, "My name is Fred, but my men ad
dress me as Sarg, but you can call me Fred any time I'm away from them."

  Fred was average height, and like me, had a few extras pounds; on meeting we shook hands.

  "Well I would say it is nice to meet you Fred but under the circumstances I'm not sure it is nice for either of us."

  There was something about Fred that made me feel relaxed, maybe it was the way he approached unarmed. I motioned for Ben to join us but to leave our weapons behind, as he arrived, I introduced him.

  "This is my right hand man and friend, Ben."

  Fred reached out and shook Ben's hand.

  I continued, "Almost everyone here has had bad encounters with militia in their travels, so they are all very edgy right now."